Spring Break
Summer just isn't what it used to be
Gail Cole
Issue date: 5/12/09 Section: Forum
Back in the day - before our ages hit the double digits, before we learned long division, before we had debit cards - we mostly spent our summers in fun ways.
We went to summer camp. We swam in the local pool. We ran through sprinklers and splashed down the Slip 'n Slide. We ate bugs. We went on family vacations. Or, if we didn't leave town, we terrorized the neighborhoods.
Then childhood ended and sometime later we hit college, where summer morphed into something quite different.
After many hours spent online and talking to advisors and professors, our alternatives are usually narrowed down to three paths: work, get an internship or simply do nothing.
Our options are a little limited as students. We want money, but we want experience. And we want fun and relaxation. There aren't a whole lot of options that include all of this, but there's little we can do about it but suck it up and learn something.
Finding a job or any paid internship this summer in particular won't be easy. The economy as a whole is in the dumps, if you haven't noticed, and Oregon's unemployment is at 12 percent.
I was faced with a dilemma this summer: go home and have an unpaid internship, since I had absolutely no prospects for a job in Lorain County, Ohio, but with considerably lower expenses since I'll be at my parents' house, or stay in Corvallis for yet another summer (if you've been under 21 and in Corvallis for the summer, you know what I mean) and actually make money.
It would be nice to take three whole months to sleep until 4 p.m. every day or to travel to Europe, but like so many other students, I'm forced to be a grown up during some of the little time I have off.
This is, for a lack of so many words, a "weird" time in our lives. We are adults, but we are still young. Our student loans may be piling up, but those memories of carefree summers of childhood are still in our minds.
In addition, a lot is being asked of us by the higher-ups of the world (aka future employers). We are told to be well-rounded individuals, a state that begs for at least some relaxation. But then we are told to have experience in the fields that we want. We also need money - no matter our financial needs, money is always good.
We went to summer camp. We swam in the local pool. We ran through sprinklers and splashed down the Slip 'n Slide. We ate bugs. We went on family vacations. Or, if we didn't leave town, we terrorized the neighborhoods.
Then childhood ended and sometime later we hit college, where summer morphed into something quite different.
After many hours spent online and talking to advisors and professors, our alternatives are usually narrowed down to three paths: work, get an internship or simply do nothing.
Our options are a little limited as students. We want money, but we want experience. And we want fun and relaxation. There aren't a whole lot of options that include all of this, but there's little we can do about it but suck it up and learn something.
Finding a job or any paid internship this summer in particular won't be easy. The economy as a whole is in the dumps, if you haven't noticed, and Oregon's unemployment is at 12 percent.
I was faced with a dilemma this summer: go home and have an unpaid internship, since I had absolutely no prospects for a job in Lorain County, Ohio, but with considerably lower expenses since I'll be at my parents' house, or stay in Corvallis for yet another summer (if you've been under 21 and in Corvallis for the summer, you know what I mean) and actually make money.
It would be nice to take three whole months to sleep until 4 p.m. every day or to travel to Europe, but like so many other students, I'm forced to be a grown up during some of the little time I have off.
This is, for a lack of so many words, a "weird" time in our lives. We are adults, but we are still young. Our student loans may be piling up, but those memories of carefree summers of childhood are still in our minds.
In addition, a lot is being asked of us by the higher-ups of the world (aka future employers). We are told to be well-rounded individuals, a state that begs for at least some relaxation. But then we are told to have experience in the fields that we want. We also need money - no matter our financial needs, money is always good.
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