College Summers

I don't know if I've ever expressed this but I LOVE the people that I work with.

I work at a University in the Alumni Relations department doing membership acquisition and retention, and also marketing related things (website, email blasts, etc.)

Our office is small but I love it so much. There's 4 of us on staff and I have been working in this particular place on campus since I was a sophomore as a student worker. Now I work full time and Valerie (who was also a student worker) works with me full time as the Event Coordinator.

Why am I telling you this?

It's crucial to my story that you know that Valerie and I are around the same age and stage of our lives. We're learning about independence and working full time but missing college in the worst way.

SO about once a week we all sit in the main office (with Cindy, the admin assistant) and reminisce about how glorious summers were in college.

We put on the facade that we're telling our precious student worker to appreciate what he has for the next 3 years but I think it's our way of grieving about the good times that we will never get back.

We're like "Keifer, you better take advantage of this time because it will never be the same once you leave college" and he just looks at us and laughs...

Val's story always goes like this - She was living in her sorority house for the summer, paying 100 a month in rent, and babysitting around twice a week. She would just eat Taco Bueno Party Burritos and party every night and there was one week she didn't even get out of bed she just read the entire Twilight series while having food delivered to her and not working.

THIS WOULD NEVER FLY NOW.

Doesn't that sound so great?

This is always my version - Summer 2009 I lived in a friends house while she was gone for the summer. I worked at the Alumni House from 10-3 every day and after I got off work I would be at the pool the rest of the afternoon.

I had no money and a friend gave me about 15 bottles of liquor from her house at the beginning of the summer and I never had to pay to drink. I auditioned for a lot of plays, and I had Netflix and would order entire seasons of Battlestar Galactica to watch on the weekends during the day and at night I had a summer crew that would always go out (to house parties, of course) at night.

It was amazing. I got my nose pierced and I went on tons of dates and talked to tons of guys.

But when I further dissect that summer I realize that I was really sad - my parent's house had just burnt down, I didn't have any money, it was the first summer I was away from them and they were having a rough time trying to rebuild and deal with insurance.

I lost a lot of weight because I was drinking - and not eating and my phone got stolen at a party I went to - I was without a phone for about 2 weeks, sick and I saw no one, like I dropped of the face of the earth.  One of my best friends starting dating the guy I liked and although I went out with tons of guys they all really sucked as people.

The romanticizing of these summers was intentional. We're so nostalgic for the worry-free college summer that often I forget what it actually was.

It's fun to go back and remember but now I feel it must be taken with a grain of salt. I'm glad I have those memories but I'm also glad they are over.

So next time we all sit around Cindy's desk and talk about our forgotten college summers I'll still remember the good times- even if they were not so good.

Ciao,
Mal xoxo

PS. The nose ring didn't work out.