So it may just be me, but is anyone else in that awkward “limbo” between being up to your ears in work and having literally nothing to do? Every single friend of mine that’s home on break has the same things to say: “Oh, no job has called back to hire me.” “I’m sleeping all day because I’ve already watched seventeen seasons of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix.” And the ever popular “Get me the fuck out of this house, I’m going to scream, everything in this town closes at 9 PM.”
It seems that although we wait impatiently for spring semester to come to a close and our ever-so-precious “free time” to be restored to us, once we actually get home for the summer we really just don’t know what to do with ourselves. Sure, we all have plans to work and play and do a million and one things, but ultimately things never seem to go according to plan. First, the job you wanted doesn’t want temporary employees. Then, you get a job working for minimum wage scooping up dog shit and you’re forced to either quit it or perpetually smell like ass. And of course, since all of your friends are in the same boat, it becomes impossible to schedule times to hang out and do all those “awesome plans” you anticipated while working around twenty shitty work schedules and the obvious lack of things to do after a certain time of night.
Let’s face it: college summers are rough. We love having the time off but hate it just as much. We love the comforts of home and old familiar faces but hate being so far away from college life and all that it affords us. And right now, we’re stuck in a “limbo” during which we’re getting ourselves situated and our schedules in order, all the while dreading that warm summer day when we legitimately have to get out of bed at a reasonable time of day and go be “real people.”
So take it day-by-day, appreciate the limbo (to continue with the metaphor), and enjoy the free time before it’s inevitably sucked away from you (likely in the next few weeks or sooner). And once that free time is taken away by menial labor and, if you’re me, hours behind a bar and watching various people’s pets and children, I can almost guarantee that a little part of you, no matter how tiny it may be, will be wishing and hoping that the state of limbo could return again.
Oh, and make sure you catch up on Grey’s. Netflix is calling your name.
-Amanda Matteo