For many college students, the summers that follow a school year are both relaxing and exciting. However, summers for Jayhawks are a little different. We don’t necessarily look forward to them like the rest of the country because any time that we don’t spend in LFK is time that we dread.
Between forgetting that oh-so-familiar smell of the Hawk, Netflix becoming Thursday-through-Saturday-night plans, group messages exploding with hourly updates ... you'll wonder why you left in the first place.
As a Jayhawk during the summer,
You eat pizza that didn’t come from the Wheel or Pizza Shuttle, and it’s awful. No one from your hometown will ever be lucky enough to experience the delicacy that is cream cheese on your pizza. And suggesting that your friends add honey to their crust? Forget about it.
You think about all the beverages and pizza you did get to consume in Lawrence, and you establish a workout plan. This probably won’t be successful because halfway through your workout you’ll stop only to think about the tantalizing home-cooked meal waiting for you at home. You’ll stuff your face with real food, because I mean, you’re only home for three months. The freshman 15 never bothered me anyway.
You’ll go through hundreds of pictures from the year on a daily basis. Nostalgia will hit you like a brick every single day. You’ll laugh at the good times and cry about how it used to be. It sounds like I’m kidding, but I’m dead serious, I’ve actually shed a tear.
You'll learn how to use Uber, and subsequently never take BADD duty for granted again. Eight girls piled in a sedan is greater than paying $10 for a ride.
As a result of said photo searching, your Instagram will be filled with more #TBT than photos from the actual summer. And you’ll definitely be okay with it. Pausing your life and seemingly living in the past for three months is totally acceptable for Jayhawks. It’s a necessary evil to get a little bit #senti sometimes.
You’ll grow jealous of the townies, the ones who have spent their entire lives in Lawrence and still get the pleasure of going to First Watch for brunch or Juice Stop for smoothies. You may even feel guilty for teasing them all year, but it won’t stop you from doing it again in the fall.
You’ll go to beaches with actual sand and water, settling for Wescoe Beach is no longer an option (Okay, this might be a good thing).
The only way for you to get your basketball fix will be to watch the NBA, and we all know that isn’t a great option. College basketball is overall better than professional, and everyone knows it. It’s tough enough that KU isn’t in season, and now we have to watch middle-aged, married men run around the court? I want Kelly Oubre and Perry Ellis back.
Wednesday’s will have a different meaning. Unless dollar night in the summer means buying a McChicken and small fry from the McDonald’s dollar menu, Wednesdays will retreat to just being the day that lands in the middle of the week.
You’ll get used to finding parking wherever you drive, but you would take yet another ticket from KU Transportation if that meant you could be back in Lawrence.
You’ll be personally offended when your friends hang out with people from their hometown, because like, how could they have other friends and possibly have fun without you?!
You’ll wonder what you did for the first 18 years of your life without LFK and its people. Seriously, I had no idea so many great humans could congregate together in one place. Being home makes you think about what life was like before you met them, and you’re glad that time is over.
You’ll look at your calendar and count down the days until everyone returns to the hot mess that is Lawrence in August … and our hearts will be whole once again.
