Four years of college came with a lot of non-school time. Three months of summer break was even better than elementary school vacation! But unless you’re a teacher, adulthood lacks a serious dose of summer vacay. Let’s mourn the loss of summer break as we knew it.
College: No homework. Unless you were crazy and took summer classes by choice, or were forced to take them, summer meant no papers, projects, study groups or other nonsense. Your MacBook was to be used for Facebook, YouTube and PhotoBooth only.
Adulthood: Actual work. Two weeks of vacation for the whole year? That means you must choose to use your days wisely. You spend sunny days in a cubicle being blasted by AC, but hey, at least there’s still daylight when you leave.
College: Part time job. I spent my summer scooping ice cream and crafting sundaes like no one’s business. It was mindless, and tasty. I was basically getting paid to hang out with my sister and occasionally serve customers. Minimum wage (and that visor) sucks but it did pay for my countless Forever 21 purchases and filled my gas tank to go to the mall, duh.
Adulthood: Real job. Full time work is nice, a salary is great and all, but 40 hours is a lot of time to be occupied every summer week. Why be inside when the sun is shining and it’s 80 degrees? And dress pants, ugh. Way too much for a summer day.
College: Friend separation. Your friends were probably scattered across the country for the summer, and you probably saw them once or twice, maybe not at all. This was hard to deal with. How could you possibly live without your closest friends not being down the hall from you?!?! You of course signed on to AIM and chatted late into the night about your lives away from school.
Adulthood: Friend separation. Your friends are probably still scattered across the country, but this time IT’S FOR GOOD. You reminisce about the days of cheap beer and 2 a.m. pizza. You snapchat from your desk at work and count down the days until one of you gets married so you can all be together again.
Enjoy summer break while it exists. It will never come back.
