The Summer Paradox: The Top Ten Reasons Why You Never Know How to Feel about summer

From the day you start finals, to the day you move out, you can’t wait for summer to begin. Once you’re finally home, you being to question why you were so excited for summer, and you begin to countdown till the day you move back to campus.

Here are the top ten reasons many college students suffer from the Summer Paradox:

1.Your Best Friends from Home will begin to stay in their College towns:

Many of your close friends from home find summer work in their college towns, or have rental places that they can’t sublease over the summer. In this case, they will probably stay at school, and not be home, leaving you with one less friend to come home to.

2. Living with your parents again:

As college students get older, they mature and come into their own adulthood, and begin to form their own views and values. Many of these views and values may differ from family members, and this could cause living at home to be very irritating.

3. Financially Cut Off:

This may apply to some more than others, but as summer comes around, your parents may begin to pay for less. This means going out can cost you $30 or more a night, which equals at least 3 hours of your work, meaning you’ll be broke within the third week of summer. This forces you to manage or money, or just go out less, both of which are not ideal.

4.Your Friends work All the Time

Many college students have a difficult time finding a job during the semester, so to compensate for not working, they work heinous hours during the summer. This can cause a major issue when trying to make plans with someone, because they’re literally always working and never around to hang.

5. You’re working all the time

Whether it’s an internship, waitressing, or driving an ice cream truck, you’re working your ass off all the time and never have a down moment to yourself, or to see the few people that are home. You begin to miss studying because working so much is taking such a toll on your body.

6. Staycations

Family vacations are a thing of the past, and you often find yourself plopping your ass on the beach in your locality rather than traveling to some exotic destination. Whether it’s the cost of school, work schedules, or other issues, you just can’t seem to plan a family vacation anymore.

7. Overthinking

For those who are not working every second and actually have some down time, the summer may provide excessive times to question your life, your major/minor, your career path, and pretty much every decision you’ve ever made. Since you’re not consumed with schoolwork, you’re thinking about whether or not the schoolwork you’ve completed actually matters to you.

8. The 1%: Death by Trimester/Co-Op

Some schools require you to be present during summer hours, whether it’s in the classroom or completing a local co-op. So, when you see Snapchat stories of your friends on the beach, you’re digging into a textbook or stack of papers in the classroom or at work.

9.Summer Classes

Some students who failed a couple times (it happens to the best of us), had to withdraw, or are just generally behind on credits are forced to take on campus or online classes, which are no joke. Squeezing 10 weeks of work into a 4-week online course is literal hell. You find yourself back in the library or at a Starbucks trying to watch online lectures and take tests, just to pass this insanely fast course.

10. The End of Summer Blues

Once summer actually comes to an end, you begin to get nervous about the upcoming semester. Whether you’re a senior and it’s your last year, you’re a junior and the upper level courses finally begin, you’re a sophomore deciding your major, or a freshmen preparing for a major life transition, your summer paradox hits an all time high. First you were sad to have summer, now you’re wondering why it didn’t last longer.