Growing up is hard. No one ever said otherwise. Now that you've experienced your time at college, it's easy to think you've got adulthood down, right? After all, you managed to balance your credit card from all those Steak N' Shake runs. However, your adulthood transformation is not complete. During your college years, you are in this weird fluctuation period between growing up while still clinging with a tight grip to your childhood. At the end of freshman year, or rather any time you come home, the College Student™ must reacclimate to life with parents and the aspects that come along with your Homecoming (only this time there's no dresses or fun parties— well, usually).
Along with returning home, you must find a way to balance not only your own life but your entire household's again. While living under your family's roof, you still have to live by their rules which can be very hard to adjust to considering you've been on your own for quite some time. Your freedoms are restricted severely because how you live now affects those in the house rather than the luxury of a dorm where you're given quite the leash. At first, this can be hard. Be home by midnight? More like that's when the night begins. College kids are perpetual night-walkers and so not being able to leave the house at 4am for a bite can be a bit disorienting when your body is used to those late nights. Another rule you may have to remember is to ask your parents if you can do something. In college, you can come and go as you please but when you're home again, your parents will be wondering where and what you're doing as their parental duties kick in once again. These details can be quite annoying when you've tasted freedom, but you are under their roof and so try your best to be respectful because your arrival is changing the house dynamic by just existing.
Most college students take advantage of the summer by working as many hours as humanly possible in order to ensure a semester full of possible adventures. However, if you're anything like my friends, you didn't work while class was in session due to lack of transportation and time. Changing your habits to work mode once again can be difficult when work has been the last thing on your mind for quite some time. Interviews seem like a foreign concept and business casual? It would seem sweats are no longer an option even though that's how you survived your time on campus. Not to mention having to once again come in contact with people older as well as younger than you. Let's face it, you'd forgotten anyone outside the ages of 18-22 existed except for those sparse returning students as well as professors.
Friendships are a weird thing in college. When you come back, you've either kept in contact with your friends or you haven't. Either you can fall back into your old shenanigans and share your stories or you realize that you're too different of a person to continue a friendship or two. This seems to be very prevalent in your own class. However, it also is a weird experience between you and younger high school friends. While you may have been joined at the hip with a junior last year, the high school realm seems years away. A lot of maturing happens freshman year and so coming back is odd when your younger friends haven't been through the same experiences yet. It almost feels weird to be around these friends, yet at the same time there's no place you'd rather be because these people were your family.
All these changes are so hard to plan for as you never know they're coming until you've been hit with them all at once. Yet the adjusting just takes patience and understanding that it's happening. The time it will take to become comfortable in your skin again may be weird, but so crucial. And believe it or not, it's not impossible to make the transition. Just remember, summer is short and even if you're going mad, you'll be returning to campus shortly. Also realize that these are some of the last times you'll be living under your parent's roofs. Ever. Make the most of this time and your close proximity. Adulthood is waiting for you just up the road and there's no reason to rush to it anymore than you already are.
