With it being the beginning of August, it can mean only one thing: School will begin soon. While in high school this was a much-dreaded part of the year, once school started I was fine with the reality, but leading up to that first day, I just wanted summer. Once you hit college, however, your relationship with school adjusts to more loving of school than dreading. A few months ago, in April, summer felt like it would never get here and I would be in a perpetual state of studying for finals and doing projects. Now that it is August, I realize that while I do NOT miss the projects, I do miss my professors and my friends. I miss the college environment of making my own choices. In college, it does not matter that it is 3 am, we want cookies and we will very well go drive 30 minutes to get our cookies.

Regardless, being in college, summer is an exciting time since it is made simpler to visit high school or elementary school friends. While during the semesters in college, the only time I had to visit old high school friends was during Christmas break, and even then, it was cut short due to their own "family obligations". Despite the short periods of time together, it is always pleasant to get together and reminisce about our times together and see how much each other have grown in college. While I feel I have not changed since high school (despite in height), talking with my high school friends proves to me that I have grown as a person; we all have. Without our different collegian experiences, the growth may seem invisible. I have grown into the person I am today, it was not an over-night improvement-- it was gradual as I became accustomed to college life and the people I was in contact with on a daily basis.

Soon, I and many other students throughout the country will return to late nights and stressful assignments. The only highlight that assists us through the dreaded parts of school is knowing that our friends, sorority sisters, and fraternity brothers will be there with us to help us through. We know that we are never alone through the stresses. We have a support system that is more adamant and prevalent than the one we had in high school, we live with the same people in our classes, we go out (or stay in) on Friday nights with the same people in classes. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the same group of people, we have a different/ stronger bond than we ever could have had before college with our classmates. It is vital for young people to develop these bonds- there is a reason it is said that your lifelong friends will be made in college.