To The College Student Without A Summer Break,

I understand how you feel.

I know how hard it is to watch everyone go home at the end of the Spring Semester with these amazing plans of vacations, bonfires, parties, and tanning. I know what its like to sit silently and listen as your friends brag about how they get to spend the summer swimming, or how they will be going to Italy for a few weeks. I know how it feels when you hear other students discussing how they’re done with classes until September, how they’re free for the next three months. Trust me, I know.

I know what its like to spend your summer days working a minimum wage job or two so you can have the luxuries that you do. I know how you feel when you sit down at your desk on a beautiful summer day to take an online exam for your summer class. I know the struggle of wanting to go on vacation, but your job only allows you so much time off and your summer classes require you to take quizzes and hand in assignments at a certain time.

I know you feel like you’re missing out on your life. I know that deep down, it hurts to watch everyone around you enjoying life while you bust your as* for the things you have and the degree that you dream of getting. Trust me, I know.

Your life has only just begun. You’re still young, you still have time to do all of the things you long to do. You are not missing out, you are not losing anything. What you are doing is something that takes a lot of strength, dignity, courage, and will-power. What you are doing is setting yourself up for success, which will reward you with all of the opportunities you are missing out on now, only so much better.

I know right now, you’re a tired, stressed college student who feels like they’re wasting their life by working so hard for what appears to be so little. I am on the same boat rowing through this ocean called life. But I promise this will benefit you, this will help you, this will give you so much more than what it is taking from you. It did for me.

Just remember: you are doing fine.