Ah. Summer. It used to be the time we longed for, couldn’t wait for, and dreamed of. We used to be able to sit out under the sun every day working on our tans while swimming in the pool without a care in the world. We couldn’t wait for that final bell to ring that signaled the years’ end and the start of three months away from class, school, teachers, and schoolwork. Yeah, summer vacation in high school was the best and we never wanted them to end. But summer vacation in college is a whole other ball game.
Responsibility.
Sure everyone has responsibilities and obligations, especially starting at a young age. Getting older in the college field, though, it gets even tougher. You have to apply for internships relating to your future career, multiple jobs, and you have bills to pay that aren’t going to pay themselves.
Summer Classes.
It’s usually around your summer after senior year of high school that you take a class or two just to get them out of the way, but generally it doesn’t take up most of your time. Once you get to college and start taking more classes that have to do with your major, it comes to the life or death situation of you making sure you graduate on time, it gets stressful. There are some people that will take nine credit hours over a six-week period in the summer on top of an internship AND another job. Those ones are the real MVP’s.
No Time For Friends.
How does the world expect you to have any fun with all of this responsibility? You are yanked away from most of your friends in May and then you go through the depression of realizing you have an everyday job, classes to take, and no time to even think to have fun. That’s what summer is usually for, right? Not anymore. And even if you want to make the trek to visit your friends that live two hours away or plan a small vacation you have to clear it with your boss, parents, make sure your assignments are finished and that your financially stable to pull it all off.
No College Town.
This may be the worst thing about “summer vacation”. You are so happy living in your college town for nine, ten months out of the year and then you go back and live at home for some of the time and it’s all different. If you do go back home for summer it seems as though you’re not as grown up as you were back at school. That independence is somewhat taken away and you have this feeling of wanting to be back on those streets that you now claim as your own, instead of just driving down memory lane every day.
Even though summer isn’t what it’s cracked up to be anymore, it’s still nice to have those days off when you can enjoy yourself. My advice is to anyone that still wants that “break” is to make time for yourself. Plan accordingly to make sure that you can have those trips you want to have, spend time with the people you want to spend with, and SAVE SAVE SAVE your money. You will thank yourself in the long run when you get back to school.
