The Struggles of Transitioning from Summer to School

By Ada Li

Say goodbye to beach days with friends and lazy summer nights by the bonfire, because the summer of 2015 is done and gone. School has started, but transitioning from summer to school is a challenge for most of us. The lazy days of summer are still in our system and we cannot find the rhythm of being in a routine again. Here are some of the struggles we face while making the change from summer back to school.

Sleeping in

During the summer, we get into the habit of sleeping in. That is because we don’t have to wake up early for class. Now that school has started, sleeping in is not an option for most of us unless we have afternoon classes. Many of us will realize that the snooze button is our best friend, offering us a couple more minutes of sleep before we’re going to be late for class.

Being night owls

Many of us are guilty of staying up until 4:00 in the morning during the summer before heading to bed. Being night owls, in turn, causes the need to sleep in. This cycle is hard to break, especially when you’re staying up late trying to finish the homework you started the day before it is due.

Being lazy and procrastinating

This segways nicely into the next struggle: being lazy and procrastinating to the maximum. When we don’t have a job or classes to attend during the summer, we have all the time to burn. Often we find ourselves moping around the house, browsing the web and binge watching TV shows. Put school in the picture, and we all struggle to get back into a routine. Have a paper due two weeks from today? We wait until the last minute possible to write such paper. What exactly are we doing in those two weeks of procrastinating? Hanging out with friends, staring at the blank Word document on our computer screen, and watching cat videos on YouTube.

Being an adult

Entering a university marks the beginning of responsibilities, and responsibilities lead to adulthood. Summers back at home mean less responsibility because we expect our parents to lend a helping hand, as selfish as it sounds. When we’re back at school, we must organize our time so that we can eat, socialize, do homework, go to work and go to class. It is especially hard for those who live in apartments because they have to pay bills and do other adult things. Summer means being a kid again, whereas school means having to be both mature and responsible.

However, that doesn’t mean going back to school is all that bad. We attend a university where our friends are from different places. School is a great time to catch up with them and create amazing memories to remember for years to come. So reminisce about those summer days, but also make sure to enjoy school before you graduate and are forced to be an adult every day.