Ladies and gentlemen, school is in session! It is go-time. The long-awaited summer break we all crave semester after semester is officially over. Life is back to long hours in the library and late-night cram sessions the day before a quiz. What did summer look like for GCSU students? Is it all the beauty and aesthetic we see on Instagram or is the reality less glamorous?
On social media, summer is always fun pictures at the beach with friends, campfires and s’mores or simply sleeping in on a Tuesday when any other month you might have had to wake up early and finish that essay you had been procrastinating for the past week… yeah no, that has never happened to me either.
Whatever the case, summer does not seem to truly be the end of the semester the way it once did in elementary or middle school. College is just an endless void of work, assignments and going from one place to the other, but in the busyness of being a college student, when should we truly settle down and rest? We certainly do not spend all of June and July just relaxing. School may be out, but we are still at work. Whether it is actually working a job or taking more classes, summer is not a time for us to just rest up for the next school year. Is it really beneficial for us to just take the entire summer off?
According to the “Stanford Report”, having a summer job may actually make a difference in improving academics because it encourages better ways of thinking.
I whole-heartedly agree. When you are out of school, I think it is more beneficial to keep yourself busy with things rather than just taking the whole summer off. Since I have been in college, I have not had a summer completely free with zero responsibilities. The summer after my freshman year I studied abroad and took two courses in Paris. My second summer, which was this previous Summer 2024, I went on a beach project for eight weeks while working a 40 hour week job at a hotel.
Now, I am not saying all students should be like me and fill their summers with busy schedules and leave no time for rest. Finding the right ways to rest, especially after a really chaotic semester, is really important. But it is beneficial to students to continue the grind even after the semester is over.
“I went on this really cool thing called Summer Leadership Project,” said Emily Granier, a junior environmental science major. “I am a part of Campus Outreach at GC and they do this trip to help students learn the gospel and grow in their faith. I feel like this summer was a good way for me to catch up on making money since I do not make a lot during the semester. It was cool to take that opportunity through Campus Outreach to work and get out of my comfort zone.”
Granier went on the same trip that I did this past summer, and I can attest that it truly was the coolest opportunity ever. It personally helped me to develop new skills while working at a very fast-paced and quick-thinking kind of job, and I am confident that the same can be said for other students who spend their summers doing something productive. I do feel like my own experience of keeping my summers filled with activity has helped me during the academic year. I feel as though I can focus my attention more on the tasks at hand and not have to struggle so much adjusting to a new and full schedule of balancing classes, work and a social life.
“If I were to have stayed home all summer and just rested, I would have gone crazy,” Granier said. . “I think it is better to find rest academically, but it was more beneficial for me to keep working and go on SLP.”
There are ways of finding rest during the summer that do not have to mean taking the whole summer off. The break can be a fun-filled time with friends while also keeping you productive. But summer break is definitely much needed. Students are in desperate need of time to just breathe every now and then, but summer can be a great time to not just keep up the pace but also get ahead. Whether through taking classes, working, going on a trip or even learning in a different country, take advantage of the summer and broaden your horizons, get out of your comfort zone, make a little money or even just find something to keep yourself from going crazy from boredom.
No one ever got anywhere standing still, and is that not the whole reason we are in college — to get somewhere? So, when you think about it, what did you do this summer that can be useful for the new semester? And what might you do next summer to advance yourself in ways beyond the classroom?
