As I start to prepare to head back for another year of college I cant help but reflect on the summer that just passed us by. It was one full of finding our way back to our roots, and personally one of getting back to a personal happy state. It was still weird to me how the first summer home from college could be the last with the entirety of my high school friends. So, here is a small reflection on what I noticed about the first summer back from college.

Adjusting back to your place within your household. This tends to be one of the harder things about summer for a good amount of college students. As they have gotten a taste of freedom and personal responsibility, they now have to return to mom and dad's rules. While one never loses their place within their family, it can certainly feel like it at times considering your family's lives, much like yours, continued when you left the previous fall. They have made new memories without you and maybe function a little differently than you're used to, but once you find your way back home there is nothing like it.

When your old friends meet your new friends. This literally caused me so much stress this past summer. You love your old friends and you have really talked them up at school because well they are your life and your past. You also love your new friends and you've talked them up because they are your present and future. So, when these two worlds collide you hope they fit seamlessly into each other (and trust me more often than not they do).

You find your way back to your roots. You get back into the life you lived before you left, although it's different now because you've changed. Your world has expanded, but that doesn't mean that your hometown has. So there is almost a bit of regression you find yourself living your old life all over again and while this might seem like a bad thing it certainly isn't. Finding the way back to your old self is what allows you to continue to grow.

Most importantly it is a time when you really find out a lot about yourself. You are able to hang out with the people you really love spending time with because it wont matter on the first day of school. It also gives you a chance to reflect on all you have accomplished over the past year, look at what has changed, who is still present in your life and who has left. It gives you a chance to learn about how all of your friends' lives are changing just like your own, and you can compare. It lets you realize all of the things you would have done differently the first time around to make the second time hopefully better.

Soon I'll be sitting back on campus, doing homework, and far away from showers that don't require flip flops. While this certainly isnt something I'm counting down for, I am looking forward to the new adventures, opportunities, and progress this new year brings.