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The Not So Sweet Life of College Summers

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at ASU chapter.

Ah, summer. A break from the hustle and bustle of the last two semesters. A time to relax and renew. The sweet serenity of lazy days and nights filled with memorable moments.

Can’t relate? I empathize with you.

When the students at the elementary school I work at finally finished their school year this past week, a wave of sadness hit as I realized I would never again experience the carefree summer that awaited them.

Between summer classes, a job and various other responsibilities and obligations, it seemed that a summer to remember was not in the cards for me.

Sure, it’s likely that if I wasn’t working I would spend the majority of my time hiding from the Arizona heat inside my air-conditioned home, but it’s the sheer principle of having a free summer that so greatly weighed on me.

I long for the times when the last day of school rolled around and I was filled with a bittersweet excitement for summer vacation. Now, I have to worry about saving up for the next year of college and getting ahead in my credits so I can graduate early. I’m trading days of lounging by the pool for cleaning and organizing from the past year and prepping for the new one.

I told one of my students — who was not at all excited about the summer break ahead — how much I wish I could go back and enjoy the June months when the only worry I had was deciding which popsicle flavor to eat. I would trade anything to be able to spend my summer evenings watching an outdoor movie instead of planning the next day’s to-do list.

While this summer looks very different than the summer breaks of my childhood, the dog days are here and it’s up to me to make the most of them.

Lauren Fountain is a student at Arizona State University's Cronkite School double-majoring in Journalism and Spanish. Lauren loves writing, cooking and learning languages. When she's not curled up with a book or cheering on the Diamondbacks, Lauren can be found traveling in any capacity she can. You can follow her on Twitter @fountainlaurene.