As the end of the semester looms over us with exams and essays, we look forward to the few summer months with timid excitement. It’s close enough that we can almost hear “Summer Nights” from “Grease” softly playing in the background.
The dream of an obnoxiously loud vehicle, big Ray-Bans and a neon T-shirt that says a monosyllabic word such as “swag,” “fly,” “fresh” or “rage” seems oh, so sweet. However, we are college students, so this idea will most likely always remain a dream.
The occasional college student’s workload may diminish over the summer, but the majority of students look down a long barrel of mini-mesters in search of graduation.
These summer schedules are different from the summers of our adolescence for a number of nostalgic reasons.
The summer seemed so long. In childhood, summertime seemed to stretch on like Spandex after a large meal. This may have something to do with the fact that children are expected to have next to no responsibility. With no responsibility or schedule, summer seems like a blissful year. As a college student, summer seems like three months of work speckled with the occasional welcomed vacation.
The outdoors were our endless playground. Kids are always so active — probably because they’re hyped up on sugar. Summers consisted of swimming, running, climbing, falling down and getting back up again. Now summers are meant for sleeping, studying, sleeping, working and sleeping. Did I mention sleeping? If people actually take the time to go outside and play like children, they will probably find themselves thinking, “This swing is too small,” “Why is everything so much shorter?” and “What do you mean I don’t have to go outside to play tennis, soccer, archery and basketball?”
There were no classes during the summer. Summer used to be the time when we threw our old papers into the air and waved our hands like we just didn’t care. Now, if we threw our papers in the air, we would have to pick them up a few moments later. Hooray for upper-level classes.
We could sleep whenever and wherever we wanted. In the old days, if we were too tired after watching endless Disney movies, we could just fall asleep on the floor or couch — we lived such a hard life. When we woke, we would be resting soundly in our twin bed. However, if I fell asleep anywhere I wanted now, I would wake up on some remote bench with a guy named Frank asking if he could have my shoes. No, Frank, I’d like to keep my shoes.
The sun didn’t seem so hot. Maybe it is because of global warming, but I don’t remember the summers being as hot as they are now. If it was hot, I either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I would just build a makeshift Slip-N-Slide and watch my friends hilariously continue sliding into the grass. If it’s hot now, we just check our Instagram to see how many people have posted a picture of their car’s temperature reading. “Kelsey’s Instagram says it is 98 degrees outside, followed by an emoji of a sun and a face with X’s over its eyes — I’ll just stay inside and sleep.”
Sunburns weren’t a big deal. Hello, skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S. Things have changed now — we have the technology. Put on sunscreen, an oversized T-shirt, hat and sunglasses.
Opinion columnist Kelly Schafler is a print journalism junior and may be reached at [email protected]