Summertime Sadness

Going home for the summer is something so bittersweet for college students. It means the end of the year, you're getting older, and you’re leaving your friends. But, you’re also leaving that special someone or maybe the person you've had a crush on for months but have been too scared to say anything to.

The summer can be a good thing for relationships. As they say, distance makes the heart grow stronger. 

Friends 

Best friends are like stars, they are always there even if you can't always see them. Thanks to technology, keeping in contact with your friends is so much easier than it was for our parent's generations. We can keep in constant contact through text, Snapchat and even sending messages over Instagram and TikTok DMs. 

Make a group chat with your friends and keep them updated on the funny little things going on in your life. Now is not the time to brag about who is going on a better summer vacation or who has a summer job and who doesn't. It’s a time to just keep in touch. Let them know you care about them and maybe try and meet up once or twice over the summer.

But at the end of the day, these are your best friends, and when you all come back to school in the fall you’ll pick up right where you left off. 

Significant Other 

To go from spending every day with your partner to no time at all is hard and it can sometimes make or break a relationship. When you start a relationship in college, you’re always steps away from your significant other. But the second you both go home, the distance can span from a car ride to a plane ride.

 Again, it’s important to remember the significance of technology. Make sure to keep in contact– face time, call, text and share your life at home with them. Make them feel as if they are there with you even when you both are miles apart. 

Though it might be hard for many to find a time to meet each other over the summer, even meeting halfway for a night or two could be such a good thing for the two of you. 

The long-distance over the summer is scary, but it moves your relationship out of the bubble it has always been in. You realize if it’s something you want to keep or not. If your partner is not willing to come to see you or make the effort to talk to you over the summer, then maybe this is a relationship you need to think about a little more. 

With all the communication, make sure you aren't overbearing. Don't stalk them on the snap map and question every location they’re visiting. A relationship requires trust, and if you can't trust them then they won't trust you. Being able to be apart and still keep a healthy relationship is hard, but if you’re honest with each other and one party doesn't ghost the other over the summer, then you two can do the best you can to make it a smooth three months without each other. 

At the end of the day, if the relationship is strong enough it will last; love can and will conquer all. 

Your Crush

The summer is a bad time to have a crush. You aren't close enough yet to ask them to hang out over the summer and travel miles to see you, but at the same time, you miss them and want to still be able to keep in contact. 

Honestly, just have the balls to be a little more straight up with them. If you guys are texting or snap chatting, be bold. It’s not like you have to see them in class or around campus the next day. If you say something a little risky, nothing is going to happen and honestly, it might work out in your favor. 

The most important aspect of having a crush over the summer is remembering that if they wanted to they would. You both might have been seeing each other in class, or for a hookup, or maybe they were “just a friend,” but when it comes to the summer, they have the chance to be more or nothing at all. If they wanted to talk to you over the summer, they would. If they wanted to call you or start a conversation, they would. And if they felt the same way about you, then they would tell you. 

It’s hard to remember these things, but it’s so important because you don't want to spend the rest of your summer fonding over a person who doesn't care about you, and depriving yourself of so many new opportunities and people because you are stuck on a person who doesn't care if you live or die. 

Find out for yourself sooner in the summer rather than later if this is a crush worth working on, or something that should just say on campus.