When you're a kid, summer is the most enjoyable, carefree time of the year. No school, no worries, no responsibilities, just endless days at the beach and having fun with your friends. Summer remains to a magical time right up until your first summer home from college. For the first time in your life, summer becomes a time when life is all about recovering from college and going to work.
They say that when you first go off to college you are an adult, but I personally don't think you're truly an adult until you have to act like it outside of school. Reality truly hits when you come home from college with nothing but the Freshman 15, a damaged liver, and an empty wallet. And to make matters worse, even with all of these inconveniences, you cannot take advantage of the summer. Instead of being able to relax or just hang out with your friends every day, you have to focus on regaining your health (mental and physical) and making money. Fun is no longer a summer priority.
By no means is money the most important thing in life, but for a college student, money is certainly one of the top priorities, if not THE top. We are never really sure where all the hundreds of dollars our parents gave us throughout the year went (it was most likely spent on food), but all we know now is that the $1.34 in our bank accounts is not going to get us very far. Because our wallet has suffered so badly from late-night trips to town for pizza, taxis, Ubers, and other unnecessary forms of entertainment, college students are solely focused on filling their bank accounts with enough money to get themselves through the next school year. Therefore, the summer becomes all about work.
On the rare occasion that we are not working, the rest of our time is occupied by thinking about how we can lose the extra pounds we gained at school. We have learned the hard way that while it is easy and fun, living off pizza and beer is not a good lifestyle choice. Now that we are home, we realize that we need to take advantage of the break from school by starting to eat healthy again and exercising. You also realize that you probably should join a gym. So now, after working for hours every day, you can go straight to the gym and run your butt off. To put it simply, free time is almost nonexistent at this point.
Even though summer is not the carefree season that it used to be, all the hard work we put in during this break will pay off when we go back to school in the fall. So from one college student on summer break to another: eat healthy, exercise, give your liver a break, and fill your wallets. It will all be worth it in the long run.
