Home for the Summer

In the fall of 2013, I began my freshman year at Washburn University. (Home of the Ichabods!) With my hometown being an hour away, I chose to live on campus. I was overwhelmed in the best of ways. The freedom, the responsibility, the independence!

Living on campus for just one year can make you wonder how you ever managed to live at home in the first place.

On campus, students have the freedom to customize their whole lifestyle and schedule to their satisfaction. They gain new friends on campus to spend time with regularly though class, extracurriculars and roaming about T-town. They miss their family back home, undeniably, except for certain aspects - including mom’s consistent reminders to “Take your dishes to the sink!” and “Stop leaving your socks around the house!”

It doesn't take long to get used to this new life of college and on campus living – but it can be difficult adjusting to home life during summer break.

“It’s kind of weird being back home,” said Meg Calvert (sophomore, undeclared). “I just feel like I’m in a different mindset from being at college.”

While students keep up with their old friends from high school, things are sure to feel a bit different when time is spent with them. The chemistry is off. You and your friends have grown during the school year. (Some maybe more than others.) You aren't the same people you were before.

“With my friends from home it feels like we’re kind of… going back to normal, but I also feel just a bit out of place because, I mean, I’m not really the same person as I was last summer,” said Calvert.

It’s also likely that family at home has made alterations to their daily living in a student’s absence. Schedules, routines, and priorities have all changed.

Janice Davis is a mother of two boys who attended college. She certainly remembers what it was like as a parent with a son moving home for the summer. Parents make changes to their lifestyle while their children are away at college says Davis. When the children return as fresh adults, the parents have to make as many readjustments as the children do.

Most parents will realize that students have grown into adulthood during this year and that they are capable of taking some responsibility for themselves. It is important to remember that the returning children are adults and don’t need to follow some of the same rules that they used to according to Davis.

Possibly the largest adjustment is to be made by students. We have become accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle – class, work, friends and homework in between. When summer hits, some portions of that load drop instantly. I still find myself on Sunday nights worrying about what assignments are due, then I am overwhelmed with relief when I remember that sociology has been over for weeks.

But with more free time, comes more laziness. Netflix and video games sound like great ways to kill an afternoon. My comrades, although that sounds like a super relaxing summer, it doesn't sound like a summer you’ll rave about when next semester rolls around.

Be sure you take time to go experience. Go for walks. Bike trails. Check out a new hobby. Read a new book. Go on vacations. Go on day trips. Build things. Craft things. Write. Make. Do.

That’s the summer all of your fellow Bods will want to hear about come fall.