We spent weeks studying for exams, living off caffeine and counting down the seconds until we could finally run out of our last final and scream "It's summer!" putting all of our stress and worries behind us for the next few months. We couldn't wait to sleep in our own beds, eat free food and spend endless summer nights causing all kinds of shenanigans with our friends that we haven't seen for the better part of a year. Whether we like it or not, things don't always go as planned. Here is a list of 5 things every home-for-the-summer college student can relate to.
1. Learning To Drive Again Sucks
We've been living on a campus for eight months now and 90 percent of the places we needed to get to were a 10 to 20 minute walk from our dorms. A large majority of us didn't have a car (parking can be a real bitch) and if we really needed to get someplace, we just took an Uber or bribed a friend who had a car with free Chipotle. So you can only imagine how strange it was to sit behind the wheel of my hunk-of-junk car and drive to my friends house for the first time in months. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.
2. Showering At 3 A.M. Is Frowned Upon
It's no secret that many a college nights bled right into early mornings, and because of that, our sleep schedule is messed up! Breakfast was at 1 P.M., dinner was at nine and showering never even crossed our minds until we wrote our third English paper or finally finished binge watching "Gossip Girl" on Netflix. For us, showering at 3 A.M. is no big deal. But now that we are back home, Mom and Dad get a little upset when they hear us singing "High School Musical" into the shower head at 3 A.M. especially when they have to be up in two hours for work.
3. The Job Struggle Is Real
Many students didn't have to have a job during the school year, or if they did, it was only a few hours a week to accommodate for their insane school schedules. Now that we are home, we have somehow come to the conclusion that working 40 hours a week for the entire summer will be a fun! Who needs a vacation, right? Better start paying off those student loans!
4. Asking Your Parents' Permission To Go Anywhere Or Do Anything Gets Really Annoying Really Fast
For many of us, this is probably the biggest adjustment. We just spent an entire school year making our own decisions, never asking permission to go anywhere and not having to tell our parents every place we went and every person we went there with. Now that we are home, we are expected to act like we are in high school again. Constant texts and updates on when we will be home, who's house we are at, and if their parents are home or not. Mom. Dad. We love you, but seriously, take a chill pill.
5. Not Being Able To Walk Down The Hall To Your Friend's Room Whenever You Get Bored Sucks
Let's be real, even if we are working a billion hours a week, have a thousand friends and never run out of ideas for things to do, we still get bored. There will come a point when none of your friends are available and you're stuck in the house, all alone, having nothing to do but watch old reruns of Friends. At that moment in time, you start to miss your tiny dorm room and noisy neighbors.