Finals completed ad hopefully aced? Check. Dorm room cleaned top to bottom and emptied of all personal items? Check. Goodbye's said to the friends you've spent the last 9 months living just down the hall from? Check. Car loaded? Check. You know what that means. It's time to abandon university life and head back to the ole hometown for the weirdest 3 months of your entire life.

Summer vacation.

In high school, summer was the time you couldn't wait for. The time you counted down the days till. Pool parties with your friends. Roadtrips. Parties. It was the time dreams were made of.

But days of tanning by the pool and late night drives have been replaced with part time jobs and summer classes. The friends you've spent the majority of the last year living just a few feet from are now scattered across the state, and even sometimes the country! You only still talk to a few of your friends from high school, so most days are filled with work, school, and alot of sitting at home.

And that is another adjustment. Home.

Now we all love our parents. But being back under there roof is a strange phenomenon. Gone are the days of going out with friends until all hours of the morning, or running to get spontaneous tacos at 3am, and the days of asking for permission to go out and having parents at home waiting up to make sure you get home safe have returned.

Now, none of these are bad things; this is just something while we've been off at school we got used to not having to do.

But summer can also be a time of re-grounding. To head back to your roots. Catch p with old friends, spend time with your family, earn some money for the coming semester or work hard in summer classes to bump that GPA up a couple of points. It can be a time to relax.

While summer can bring a lot of feelings for college students every year, the fact is, it is only a tiny fraction of your year. Getting to spend 9 months getting to do exactly what you want, when you want, and with whom you want, is defiantly an exciting freedom for anyone to have.

So take these few months at home as they come. You'll be back to the college grind soon enough. Just breathe, relax, and make the best of it. Because in a few short weeks, the college adventure begins all over again.