Summer is the one season most people look forward to. It is supposed to feel like freedom, school is out, no early alarms, no stress about missing assignments, pools are open, and the sun is shining. Everything about it is supposed to feel exciting and like a weight being lifted off you. At least that is what most people say. No one talks about the harder parts of summer.
For many people when the summer rolls around so does a wave of sadness. Instead of feeling free and doing tons of activities, people feel stuck in their own head. At first it feels nice, waking up late, gaming all night because there is nowhere important to be, but after some time the days become a big blend stuck in the same room with the same deafening silence surrounding you. The long quiet days can feel empty and overwhelming. You check your phone over and over again hoping to see a message or maybe a call from someone but nothing there.
School is one of the main social platforms young people have and only realize it when school is out. School may be annoying but you are surrounded by people and friends or at least people you can spend time making jokes with to pass time in class. During the school year it can feel like you belong somewhere.
Once summer starts that all fades away. You quickly notice how many of those friendships only thrive during school because you saw each other everyday, and are those even real friendships?
Social media does not help with this either. You see pictures online of people having fun at the beach, hanging out at parties, or just at their friends house making “enjoying summer” look much easier than it is. Then it makes you start to wonder why you have not received an invite? Did anyone even think to send a text?
It is a different kind of loneliness that grows when you are left out. It almost makes you feel like you have been forgotten by everyone you thought would care about you in some way. Even summer feels different, the sun is warm and bright but it does not make you feel the way it used to.
Sometimes you sit outside alone to stare at the sun hoping the light will fill whatever is empty inside of you but it does not. Everyone assumes you are happy because it is summer but summer is not always about sunshine and happiness. Sometimes it is slow and quiet. For some it reveals the truth about relationships and lives leaving them lonelier than ever.
