Everyone makes a huge deal out of summer break and how it is always a drag since you have to go three months without your best friends. Trust me—I've complained about summer break more times than I haven't. We go from complete freedom to often times living in our house with our parents... and their rules.
I have found, however, that while summer seems almost like a three month punishment, it is actually the best thing. Summer can be three months of depression, or three months to start over again before the fall semester. We are often so consumed with drama and schoolwork during the semester, that a summer not thinking about any of those things is always much needed. Summer comes as a breath of fresh air just as you're about to run out of it during finals week. The things that hurt you or made you cry stay in your college town and you have the choice to not let them follow you back home. Chances are, the people that might have done you wrong or broke your heart don't live in your same hometown.
Summer is a vacation from all the bad things that made you doubt yourself or feel down during the semester and is the perfect chance to feel yourself again. We are so quick to overlook the blessing that summer is to us. It's our restart button. We can forget about the things that happened in the past year and start new again. You finally get a chance to breathe and while leaving behind your friends is incredibly hard, absence only makes the heart grow fonder. Summer is a way to understand all the things you took for granted while living in your college town, and helps you return in the fall more aware of enjoying and taking in every moment.
Take these three months to learn from the mistakes you made in the past year, and grow from the things that hurt you. Take time for yourself because once school starts again, you won't have any. Let go of all the grudges you held coming into summer, because in three months they won't matter anymore. Make the most of this “restart" and feel good that you can come back in the fall and start over. The sun is going down; who are you wanting to be when it comes back up?
