It is about halfway through summer break and I am counting down the days till school starts. Normally, this action would be taken out of dread for the upcoming school year, as I had done in middle and high school. This time, I am eagerly awaiting the start of school. It seems that everyone looks forward to summer and the relaxation that awaits them after a long school year of work and responsibility but is it possible that summer can be more stressful than the school year?

Recently this summer I made the decision to work a full time job, a part time job and take an online class. Up front, it seemed manageable and the idea of the amount of money I would accrue from them seemed almost too good to be true, especially for a broke college student, but as the summer has progressed, I realize that although I have a lot of money to save, I have very little of the one thing we all look for in the summer, free time. Sure I love my jobs (for the most part) but working 16 hours a day does not leave much room for anything else other than work and in the end, exhausts you. During the free time I occasionally have, it seems that my family wants me home to perform household chores and resume my home life as it was during the summer. The only problem is, I have become accustomed to dictating my own time, making being home very difficult in some aspects. I am not used to asking for permission and having a curfew and in addition it seems that after high school, there are less local friends to spend time with at home. I miss my college friends dearly and after seeing them every day for 8 months, the time away from them feels odd and I fear it will be hard to pick up from where we left off when school starts.

Aside from missing parts of college, I feel that I am eager to return to school because of the excitement surrounding of the opportunities to come in the new school year. I will be taking classes towards my major and I will be participating in the school EMT program as well as helping with the sorority rush process as well as receiving a little. There is so much promise and hope that comes with a new year and I am beyond excited to start it.

Keeping myself busy this summer has made the days go by very fast but the days where I cannot find an activity to participate in or a shift to work, feel the loneliest. This is definitely a stark difference to the constant social stimulation of college, making them even worse. To occupy the lonely times summer has had to offer me I have taken up intense crafting, completed more illustrations, facetimed far away friends, ate a lot of food, and watched a lot of Netflix and TV. Not ideal, but it is still something. What I am aiming to do, is engulf myself in activities that I find difficult to do during the busy school year and although they can be boring now, I know that later on I will not regret having done them. Thus continues the countdown till school, and the road past summer.