Do you remember when you were a little kid and summer simply meant you didn't have to go to school?
Summer meant freedom—no homework, no curfew, no waking up early to catch the bus. All you had to worry about was what shows were currently on TV and what you were going to eat for lunch.
As you grow older, summer takes on new meanings. When you think summer, you think of doing nothing all day, but the concept of it evolves.
When you were a little kid, you didn't even pay attention to the day of the week. You just did things, whether it was video games, swimming, or whatever you did for fun at that age. You did not even have to think about it. By the time you entered middle school, you were sleeping in more. You still did all those things you thought were fun but you woke up and stayed up later.
When you reached high school, summer was a relief from all the pent up stress of essays and exams you were probably never fully prepared for. You hung out with friends and went to parties. Everything was care-free, at least until you were told that you had to get a job.
It is sort of a reality check, trying to find a summer job. People always made it seem so easy, yet when you try to do it yourself, you find that it is actually quite difficult. Nobody really acknowledges that, partially because generations before us had a much easier time.
The idea of summer is to take a break and be stress-free. Yet, in reality, we just ignore all of our stress during those few months. We ignore what makes us worry in an effort to preserve the time of year.
It is not until you go to college that the idea of summer drastically changes.
Growing up, you were always around your friends. They were always close to you and you could always hang out together.
College changes that.
Friends tend to grow apart because they are so distanced from each other during the school year. They become too busy with homework, or work, or even friends that they made at their own school. You say you will keep in touch, yet it is more difficult to do than you imagined and you barely end up talking.
It is because of this that summer becomes such an important concept. It becomes more than just that time of year you do not have to go to school, more than sleeping in and staying up late.
Summer is the time of year when you can save those friendships that you seemed to forget. You still do the same things you did the years before—video games, swimming, etc. But they are different from what they were before.
You begin to focus more on the people you are with and how much you enjoy being with them rather than the actual things you are doing. It sounds cliché, but it is true. Summer has a way of reverting things, bringing us back to who we were. We all change over time; there is no avoiding that.
But summer lets us go back.
