College keeps me young. I’m barely two weeks into summer and I’ve adopted sleep patterns to rival my parents—two empty-nesters with one of those beds that goes up and down. Not that those beds are specifically for older people, though for whatever reason, that is the connotation in my mind. Mainly, I just want to give adequate evidence to prove that since coming home, I have aged tremendously.

Let me clarify what I mean. Not only have I begun going to bed by 10 (and fighting blurry eyes by 9), but I have also begun to LIKE doing dishes. Maybe this can be brushed off as one of those little things I like after bussing plates in the dining hall, but it’s unsettling nonetheless.

But there’s more. This one in particular horrifies me, contradicting a core element of my own identity. I told my friend to turn the music down. Now, this does not seem overly absurd because we have all (I hope) at one point or another done this, but what concerns me most is the reason. Because it was too noisy. Even my reason doesn’t seem logical to the millennial mind.

And then there are my old habits that I’ve readopted since coming home, my favorite being sipping coffee as I read the newspaper in the morning. While this one doesn’t concern me, it does prove my point. These ~aging~ tendencies can’t exist in college—they simply won't mesh with the hectic schedule of being a full-time college student and a part-time napper. But for the summer, I guess these habits will be okay. So I suppose I’ll finish the dishes, tuck myself by 9:45, and see what’s new in the world over a cup of hot coffee tomorrow morning.