Lifestyle

10 Ways Everyone Has A Love-Hate Relationship With Returning To School

by Danielle Naer
Paramount Pictures

If you're reading this, you're in one of two places: 1) your dorm or off-campus house, finally getting settled in and easing into your class schedule, or 2) at home with countless piles of packed sweatshirts, textbooks and Christmas lights enveloping your entire room.

You've probably gone back and forth between the booming excitement and total hell that is school's commencement. "OMG, I can't wait to see you" texts to your friends are followed by emerging emails from new professors bearing new syllabi.

F*ck, it's starting. All you can feel is the calm before the storm. There truly is so much to be pumped for, especially if you're head-over-heels in love with your school like I am. But with the good will always come the bad.

You know you're in a love-hate relationship with summer's end and college's brutal start if these are all too familiar:

Love: It doesn't get any better than hanging at the dining hall with your friends, reconnecting and people watching.

Hate: In that moment, you know somewhere in the world, your mom is preparing a savory home-cooked meal, and you're back to eating bean casserole with soggy mac and cheese.

Love: Finally! You're back to having freedom from parents, and your sibling who's been making you nearly pull your hair out all summer long is nowhere to be found. The unabridged you has arrived and is ready to let loose.

Hate: Knowing all the pangs of homesickness are still somehow around the corner. "But I was so sick of them. How do I miss home already?!" This will forever be your least favorite anomaly.

Love: Waking up, rolling over and immediately engaging in a full-blown conversation with your roommate/best friend. So much better than starting your day alone.

Hate: Adjusting to your school mattress all over again, or buying a dozen mattress pads to find one that almost-kind-of feels like your queen-sized bed from home.

Love: Aw, fall weather is nice. It gets me in the spirit; love it when the leaves change.

Hate: Who cares? F*cking SUMMER is over. S-U-M-M-E-R. OVER. And it won't be back for basically forever. After fall? Winter. And you know you didn't just get excited for that.

Love: But Christmas!

Hate: But no. Stop.

Love: Before that, the commencement of school means Halloween is right around the corner! You're already getting ideas for the perfect kinda-cute, kinda-hot costume.

Hate: Still don't care; summer is over. My tan? Fading fast. I can spend over $100 on a sad attempt to be a sexy fairy and it still won't even scratch the surface of the sex appeal of this bronzed glow.

Love: Having every party, friend's house, class, responsibility and every kind of food your heart desires in walking distance.

Hate: Knowing your campus has sucky parking, or you don't even have your car (which REALLY sucks), and accepting that your legs are in for the long haul. Plus, braving those walks in the freezing cold and inches of snow will have you yearning for your heated car in no time.

Love: Your social life is back and that means partying. All summer you were daydreaming of day-drinks, tailgates, mixers and bars. The moment if finally here.

Hate: Missing about half of them. Your workload just practically doubled from last year's. You'll find yourself refreshing Snapchat as you sadly bleed through the last pages of that paper.

Love: Having your own space; whether it's an apartment, dorm or house, it's yours. You can do whatever you please with it, as long as you don't make holes in the wall. Spackling is easy, right?

Hate: Oh my god, it's so tiny. Did this shrink since I last visited here and said, "This is where I want to live for eight months?" Not quite; you just adjusted to your spacious room at home and your spacious living room and kitchen.

Love: I'm finally back. My friends are here. My life is here. Nothing can bring me down.

Hate: School is not your typical carefree summer. There's work, challenges and responsibility, but that's life. Take the good with the bad and roll with it.