Summer Time!

Finals are finished, college is out, and we're all out for the semester and ready to do something for summer. Most people, when they think about summer, picture the beach, laying in the sun, relaxing, and going places with your friends.

However, for a lot of college students, summer means: getting a job, working all summer, saving money, and trying to prepare for next semester. Of course, there is still fun thrown in there. Road trips are still taken, adventures still had, and all that fun stuff. But it isn't only fun and games.

That's what I've learned ever since my freshman year of college. I've always had to come home and work for the summer in order to pay my way through the following school year. And now that I'm approaching my last year of college, I definitely need the job to pay my way through.

We tend to see summer as carefree and fun, but people often forget that life isn't all fun and games. While it is important to let loose and have fun, knowing what you need to do to get by is also important. Just because you have a temporary job doesn't mean you can't have fun. People mistake having a job for having no life. That is FALSE!

You can have a wonderful summer job and a wonderful summer. You can have a crappy summer job and a great summer. The two don't have to correlate to how good or bad your summer is. It's what you make of it.

The job process is rough and sometimes makes us cringe and question why we're getting the job. For me, I think of how I need to have money to get through my final year, to get a car, and to have enough money to feed myself. That pretty much motivates me to get a job.

And if you only have a part-time job and you want more hours, guess what? Get another part-time job! You may think, "Oh, two jobs? That's way too much." But if you're only working 15-20 hours a week at each place, that's 30-40 total a week. Now I'm 100% sure there's more than 40 hours in a week. You can do a lot on your time off! You don't have to have the mindset of having two jobs means tying you down. It's a pretty common idea to have more than one job.

Especially for college students. I mean, how picky can we really get?

Summer is about relaxing and having fun, but as college students, its about preparing for the next year as well. There is a way to do both, and balancing work life and personal life is always a must when approaching jobs during summer.

So don't fret, your summer isn't ruined because you have a job! Still enjoy it to the fullest!

Happy Summer!