If you’re anything like me and my suitemates, you’re stretching toward the summer the way a sunflower grows toward the sun. The end of the semester is so close, I can barely concentrate on what all has to be completed in these final weeks because I’m so centered on being done. I enjoy all my classes, I really do, but it’s been a long school year, and I can feel the thrum of summer in my bones.

I’m tired of being cooped up in a classroom, of being cooped up at work, of being cooped up in my room. This is super interesting to me because summer, for my whole life, is notoriously the season where I get the most depressed. It’s like seasonal affective disorder (SAD, better known as seasonal depression), but, like, not in the winter. I love the fall and winter. I loathe summer.

It is an unpopular opinion, completely, and I understand why. Most people want weather suited to going out and doing things. Well, I don’t. I don’t like bugs or nature or sunburn or sweating. Every time I walk outside after it warms up, mosquitos attack me—listen, I like to read and watch movies and nap. Winter is the prime season for that, right?

There’s a lot to do this summer—a lot to prepare for and some commitments to keep. My family is moving, like, right as this column is being printed. By the time I get home, they’ll be in a new house, which means I’ll be in a new house. I’m actually excited to decorate my new room and help my family unpack.

On top of that, I’ve already secured an interview for a summer job that I’m—thankfully—ensured to get. For the life of me, I could not get a job last summer when I got home. It was super aggravating, and I was super broke the whole summer.

I’ve also been working and paying for my own everything since I was sixteen, so when I had to go back to asking my parents for stuff—-I hated it.

Most interesting, though, is that I’m very motivated to get my license this summer. And, hopefully, this summer will involve me getting a car. I know—I hear it enough from my friends and family, thank you—I’m 22, and I don’t drive. I fell off a bus while I was working on getting my license and snapped my right ankle in half, postponing that process for—what I thought would be—forever. And, my anxiety about driving worsened.

I just walked everywhere. Plus, where I’m from, we have a lot of public transportation available. Anyway, I’m committing to getting my license this summer. I’m excited about all the changes and growth that will hopefully happen. I’m surprised by how much I want to be outside.

We’ll see how I feel in a week.

Megan Keane is a senior psychology and English major and can be reached at mkkeane@eiu.edu.