I don’t know about most of you, but I was shocked on Monday when I stepped outside my door and it felt like it was January outside, not three weeks until the end of school. I do not know if it is because of the weird weather, but around Auburn it just does not feel like this semester should be coming to a close.
As I walked to class, I saw students covered head to toe in North Faces and jeans, something is wrong with this picture. We just came back from spring break, people should be showing off their tans.
Driving by the field on Tuesday afternoon, it was almost empty, there were no guys playing football and no girls laying out. No one had their cars parked, with their doors open so they could listen to the radio while they enjoyed the last bit of freedom that they would have before finals.
People should be turning their air-conditioning to full blast or cracking their windows at night because it is so hot outside, not bringing in their plants and dripping their faucets because they heard it might freeze tonight.
The pool at my apartment complex has been vacant for the past couple of days even though it only opened a few weeks ago.
Also, it seems like campus is much more calm this semester than it has been in the past. It seems like everyone I have talked to is done with school until finals.
It feels like it is just any other part of the semester, not about to be the last week of classes. Usually students are running around like crazy people trying to get their three 12 page papers finished or are cramming for that one last test that could make or break their grade before their final, but not so much this past week.
Not that I am asking for 100 degree weather or anxiety filled students, but there is just something about the end of this semester that feels a little off.
I was looking forward to spending my last few days before finals just hanging out by the pool and sipping a margarita. I don’t think that’s too much for a 21-year-old girl to ask for, do you?
It is almost summer when days are supposed to be spent soaking up sun on white sandy beaches when you pray that there will be a breeze so that you don’t die of a heat stroke. You are not supposed to be bundled up like an Eskimo.
I wish summers could be like they were when I was a kid and I would spend all day swimming at the pool and if you were really good, your mom bought you a popsicle, White Sharks were always my favorite.
Kids know how to enjoy summer, playing in the sprinklers, building sand-castles at the beach, spending their days at home so bored that they don’t know what to do with themselves. I think somewhere in the process of growing up, this appreciation for fun and relaxation gets lost on us, but may be not on purpose, maybe it’s forced out of us due to getting closer to having to enter the real world.
Last year I came back to school wondering where my summer went, oh yeah, that’s right, I, like most of you, had to work. I want this summer to be different. Even though I will be interning this summer, I want to enjoy every second of my summer, after all it will be my last.
Juniors, you know how I feel. Next year will be our last year as a student, our last year as a kid. This summer will be our last summer free, aside from summer classes or internships, from having to go to work every day without a break.
I know this may sound silly to most of you, but as a kid I don’t think it ever really dawned on me that adults don’t get a summer. Maybe it’s because both of my parents are teachers, so they get the summers off, but it just recently hit me that in the next year, I’ll be one of those people who has to work day after day and hope that I am lucky enough to have a few days off at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
So I plan on making this summer a good one, full of spending time with friends and not having to worry about school or becoming an adult, that can wait until the fall.
The weather just needs to get its act together and warm up because if it doesn’t, it won’t come anywhere close to feeling like summer.
Mallory Boykin is Associate Campus Editor of The Auburn Plainsman. You can reach her at 844-9157.
