College is a weird time in the lives of every 20-something-year-old. It's a transitional period. This is not only in your education but in yourself and the people you love. School is hard, but the friends you make are worth it. I think this is the hardest part about college. You belong to two worlds that don't often belong to each other.
Let me paint you a picture. You leave your family and friends to go to a college where you know maybe a few people if you're lucky. You're homesick for the first few weeks and the only friend you make right off the bat is your roommate. But then, fall retreats and Christmas come along, and you go through fun things together and you go through finals together. You begin to live life with each other and the friendships begin to feel lifelong.
Yes, of course wherever you spent your first 18 years will always be special to you; the people you met there, your family, of course, and the friends you grew up with. But, there's something special about living with people in such tight quarters.
You become friends or you go crazy.
Well, this is where summer comes in.
You spend nine long months with these people and they become your best friends and then, then you don't see them for three months. You get kind of sad thinking about it. This summer will be incredible; with graduation parties, the beach, old friends, and bonfires. But it won't be the same. There are so many people you won't see, or at least won't see as often because they are across the country, or even across the state. The effort and the cost sometimes make people slack on seeing friends out of town, which is sad but true.
Then, after a summer full of your hometown and old friends, you go back to the people you haven't seen in three months. You then miss your friends from home and it's an endless cycle until you finally settle down somewhere after college, with new people most likely.
Life is full of transition. Summer is only a college example. But we will always be transitioning, whether that's moving to college or into your first house.
When I think back to my graduation last May, it's scary to see how different I am in just 11 months. I've changed, and I'm glad I have, because who wants to live an entire life where you are always completely the same.
Life is lived for the school years and the summers that change you, that shape who you are. You live to experience new things and to love new people, and old as well. If you are not constantly changing, how can you call that a life? No, you are merely existing at that point.
