Summer 2016.

Shall we take it all in so far? Some of us are back home in our old rooms and somehow it feels familiar and different all at the same time. We are not the same people that used to live there. This used to be our only room almost a year ago, but now we have grown attached to San Diego and all of its wonderful people. Our room is now filled with an SDSU banner and some new clothes. It is nostalgic. Out of all the things in the room we probably stand out the most, we learned a lot in that year. We have met new people, got a taste of bittersweet residence halls and realized that as stressful as high school was, college can at times be even more challenging. We were on our own for nine months with kids our own age trying to figure out the basic skills of being an adult, which includes learning how to do laundry for the first time, how to iron and live off of ramen.

Now as we are home we are much more thankful for having our own showers and restrooms that do not require shower shoes. We are embracing the home cooked meals we have missed so much and our sleeping schedules are again non-existent. Gotta love the perks of being home; there is more time to Netflix and stay in bed all day. Unless of course you are taking summer courses or decided to work this summer- if so carry on you dedicated people! Of course, the most important part is seeing our family and catching up on what has been going on. We missed their laughter, and their lively animated faces.You love that your Grandma wants to cook for you and your little brother wants to play with you all the time now. They missed us and we missed them. Things we took for granted have much more meaning now.

Our friends have so many new adventures to tell us about and it seems their faces are more mature and rounder than they used to be. They tell us stories about their crazy nights, their new boyfriends and girlfriends, and what they’ve been through in the last year. Our minds expand as we too realize our friends have changed just as much as us. They have met new people too and now we are just part of their story but that is what makes it perfect. Coming home and being off for the summer means we may have been away for a while but now we have the time to reconnect with the people that matter most in our lives, and it's like you never left.

Whether you decided to take the summer off and relax or have a summer job, enjoy the perks of being home. Talk to a stranger, go to your favorite restaurant and try something new, go to a concert but do not take pictures, tell your parents you love them, go on new adventures, go outside and look up to the night sky. Just take it all in while in while you can because the days are silently flying by and we will be going back to school so soon.