For many students, this summer will be the first of many more to come in which we will not be living in the cozy confines of our parents' houses in the towns we may or may not still call home.
While many jest that the first quarter of freshman year is the first step in becoming an independent adult, I feel that the first summer away from the home we grew up in and the people we've known the longest is the first true step toward adulthood.
Sure, there is much more drama in the first move out with Mom crying about how her little boy or girl is all grown up now and Dad giving the almost-too-firm handshake that makes you realize he's hurting inside too.
But that was all for show. They knew that there would be a weekend visit (or two) and then a six-week winter break where they can bring you crashing back down to earth with the simple phrase My house
my rules.
For the first two or three years prior to making the elongated move out from home, it's like we, as college students, are living a double life; the home life and the college life.
After my first quarter at OU I had had enough with my college life. I was amped to go back to a place that I had been describing to all the new people I met at OU. It was a relief, if anything, to go back home for a while because I really wasn't ready to break away from the amenities and luxuries of the home life and embrace the independence that the college life offered.
Going back home for the summer was the same way. It just felt right to be around the same people and places that I had been around for the previous 19 years when it was sunny and hot outside.
But something changed after that first year. The college life began to look more and more enticing while the home life started to lose its luster.
As I began to meet more interesting people at school, it became a lot tougher to say goodbye to them before the epic journey known as OU winter break. And an epic journey it was, as the college life makes you realize how crappy your part-time job that helps pay for Christmas gifts really is and how mundane and monotonous life in a suburb can be.
A spring break in the same situation made me realize I had to throw a wrench at the home life's strongest selling point, lack of school, and (GASP!) voluntarily sign up for Summer Session at OU.
Now there most likely will be some bumps in the road during my first summer away from home, like sweaty nights spent in an non-air-conditioned, decaying house or realizing that--even though it's summer--it still sucks to get up for class.
But this time I'm ready to take it on, with or without the tears and uncomfortable handshakes. 17
Archives
Andrew Gribble
