Staying in your college town over the summer can be difficult. You don’t know what to expect your first year living here on your own. The town you love during the school year has now lost almost 14,000 people. It starts to feel like a ghost town. Here are a few things college students realize when they stay in their college town over the summer.
1. Your Campus Now Looks Huge Compared To Before
Now that you are no longer avoiding cyclists and long boarders, you realize that your campus is a lot bigger than before. While rushing to class during the fall and spring semesters, you may not have noticed the true size of everything. Even the buildings seem larger (and creepier) with barely anyone in them. I mean with 15,000 less people I guess you could see the size difference.
2. You Have Free Time — A Little Bit Too Much Of It
At first the free time seems like a gift from above. You start to wonder what to do with all of this newfound free time. How much Netflix is acceptable to watch in one sitting? (a lot.) How long can I sleep in? (till at least 1 p.m.) Should I start to exercise more? (which never ends up happening.) But about a week in, you get extremely bored. With all of your friends home for the summer it is hard to find things to do. You find yourself asking them to come up and visit way too often.
3. Feeding. Yourself.
No more meal plans, no more dining centers. You can no longer swipe a card to get meals you want every day. This means you have to pay for your own food, which can be difficult seeing as most college students are broke and can only prepare meals in a microwave if meals are not made for them. Your summer will now consist of ramen and frozen pizza. Yum.
4. The Hometown
You miss going to your summer spots. The beaches, the cabins, the drive in movies and so much more. You’ll find yourself getting envious over an Instagram of your favorite hometown ice cream parlor, or the cute little candy store downtown. Even though you love the fact that you’re an independent college student, you still miss the hometown charms you grew up loving.
5. With The Hometown, Comes The Friends Made There
They make it so hard to be away from home for such a long time. Not only are you not seeing them over the summer, but when classes start up again it’ll make it even more difficult to stay in touch. You find yourself stalking your “high school best friends” on social media, just to keep up on what’s going on in their lives.
6. Where Did All My Friends Go?
It’s crazy how you can go from spending every second of every day with the same group of people and then within what seems like a second, they all move back home for the summer. Who am I supposed to actually spend time with for the rest of the summer? How am I supposed to see everyone? (Who is going to pay for the gas needed to see everyone?) But the wait is all worth it when classes start up again and you’re ready to take on another year with your best friends by your side.
