When school starts back up again, the first question that everybody asks you is 'how was your summer?'

Whenever I'm asked this question I'm always overwhelmed on how I should respond. Do I give people the cliche 'it was good! It went by way too quick though', or should I actually tell them how my summer went.

When I came home from my freshman year of college, I had surprisingly high expectations for the summer ahead of me. Unfortunately, I soon realized that this summer would end up being way different than the past ones.

I had plans to catch up with my hometown friends, have pool parties every week and somehow get a decent tan. What I anticipated was not what happened.

What happened was that my friends and I were constantly working, so we only hung out at odd times of the week. Pools days and tan lines disappeared as the rain kept pouring down, ruining farmland and everybody's summer plans.

I'm not sure what I was expecting this summer, but for some reason I felt underwhelmed at how mundane this summer became. The constant routine of working and traveling back and forth from my jobs caused me to be in a pessimistic rut.

I was constantly throwing myself a pity party because I worked so much and felt like my summer was passing by before my eyes. I sat on my bed scrolling through people posting about going on these epic vacations and summer trips abroad. I wished to have a fun and easy summer without working and obligations, even though I only worked four days a week and got the weekends off.

As I look back, I realize I only posted once throughout the entirety of the summer.

Even though my summer was spent doing mundane and 'boring' activities, there were plenty of memorable unplugged moments.

Moments like dancing to sixties music with my mom and sister in the kitchen. Times like rare family dinners that became a time of catching up and sharing our highs and lows of the day. Or getting hands on experience towards my career from both of my jobs. Times like driving to coffee shops and having a bible study with myself.

Nowadays, summers have become sort of a competition to see who's working the coolest internship, has the best and cutest bikini or even who went to the coolest destinations on their family vacations.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of the girls who had a carefree summer, but I also realized that sometimes life is better spent without your phone. Some of my favorite memories of my nineteen years of my life have been when my phone's been dead of away from me.

While posting on social media about your fun summer is fine, it's important to realize that life can be fun and happy moments outside of the small squares of someone's instagram.