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There’s a specific kind of whiplash that hits around Day 3 of summer break. For me, it looks like putting my clothes back into the drawers I’ve used my whole life, my mom sarcastically commenting on my poor sleep schedule and realizing I once again have to share a car with my brother, something neither of us missed. The last two semesters have been spent managing my own time, cooking my own food and making decisions without a second, third or fourth opinion.

Welcome home, sort of.

This tension isn’t anyone’s fault. College changes your brain — your rhythms, your autonomy, your sense of identity when nobody’s watching. But your childhood home hasn’t changed nearly as much as you, and neither have the people in it. Failing to confront this reality will lead to spending the summer straddling two versions of yourself, feeling like a guest in both places.

It’s crucial to distinguish life at home from life at school, but this doesn’t mean everything has to change. I’ve established a few strategies to help navigate this transition.

To start, I like to treat the first week back home as jet lag.

It takes time to reacquaint with an environment that’s been so distant for most of the year. The weeks before starting my summer job lack structure — especially without assignments and classes on a daily basis. It’s important not to mistake this for a sign that something is wrong. Giving yourself time to reacquaint yourself with the familiarity of home is essential. Additionally, keeping an open mind will show friends and family that I’m excited to be back, and that positivity is infectious.

I also like to pick one activity, make it uniquely mine and carve out time for it.

College is all about falling into a routine. Our weekly activities become ingrained in our personality. Coming home can be difficult, especially since these routines can be disrupted. Finding something that you enjoy is key. For me, this looks like going for a stroll on my town’s boardwalk.

Whether going to grab coffee on Tuesday mornings, getting in a morning lift or calling a friend at the same time each week, you must find repetition so some part of you feels the same. Without implementing a routine, going home can feel like you’re regressing all the growth college has provided, which can lead to a rough transition when you go back to school. That’s why this time to myself is paramount.

Conversely, I try not to live mentally at school.

Summer is a balancing act, but it’s important to live in the moment. Many students spend breaks feeling reverse homesickness, killing time until they can return to their college lives. I’ve found that framing summer break in this way makes me distracted, ungrateful and half-present. My parents have spent too much time raising my brother and I to deal with a version of us that feels entitled to live our own lives; we owe it to them to remain present.

Home isn’t a waiting room. Family and friends aren’t extras in the story of these college years. Summer is a valuable part of our lives, not a commercial break between semesters. The sooner we embrace being home, the more we’ll get out of it.

Lastly, I try to take everything in stride and let both worlds influence each other to allow for a healthy balance of home and school.

I’ve found that the initial discomfort of being home helps me realize how much I’ve grown and learned while away. Finding what parts of my life still fit into being home and which don’t allow for a well-rounded summer. Further, learning to bring parts of home back to school can also show my college friends who I really am, and that authenticity is just as important.

It can be strenuous when pivoting back and forth between two worlds in three months. But I’m confident that the students who figure out how to navigate this transition without losing themselves in either one will return to campus in the fall with something their peers don’t — the knowledge that they can feel at home in more than one place at a time.

That’s not a small thing; that might be the whole point.

William Dumond is a sophomore studying political science and policy studies. He can be reached at whdumond@syr.edu.

Published on April 26, 2026 at 8:58 pm