- Flexibility and freedom. School was my only obligation and since my courses were free-form and individual I could plan school around fun. I planned my library trips on days that my friends were busy. When plans were made with friends or family I was always available, so I almost never had to say no to summer fun!
- Relaxation. I have a habit of spreading myself too thin and becoming a big ball of stress. I work best under pressure, but it makes me a little crazy. I didn't get stressed out this summer because I was never overwhelmed, because I was never very busy. I think this has had a lingering positive effect on me, because even now that I'm juggling work, school and a social life, I feel much more capable of balancing everything, and I don't get as stressed out as I used to. It might help that I'm living rent-free... but I think my relaxing summer helped too.
The negatives:
- Lack of income. This one is obvious; no job=no money. I knew that my Europe trip would eat into my savings quite a bit, and I was okay with that. But I thought that since I wouldn't have the same expenses living in Whitby with my parents as I did living in my apartment in Hamilton I wouldn't notice the lack of income so much. Unfortunately fun often costs money (even a trip to the beach costs money for gas and snacks), and since I had a lot of free time to fill up with fun I spent a lot of money.
- Lack of motivation. I had all the time in the world to get school work done, and I usually didn't. It was very hard to motivate myself since a) my assignments had no deadlines, just a final end date for the courses, and b) I had no other obligations so there was nothing to keep me from procrastinating and putting off school work. I also put off other things in my life I wanted to achieve while I had so much spare time simply because I couldn't find the motivation.
- Inactivity. There is some merit to having a routine and obligations. Now that I have a job I am more active not only on the days I work, but I want to accomplish things on my days off too. When every day is a day off it's very easy to spend them very lazily. I gained a few pounds over the summer, which I attribute to having a much less active lifestyle in Whitby than I did in Hamilton. In Hamilton I had to walk 10 minutes to take the bus to work or the library. I also walked to friends houses, to get groceries or do any other shopping, and I did a good amount of walking while at work (as all servers do). This doesn't sound like much but it added up, and cutting out all that walking had an impact. I also consistently worked out with the EA Sports Active Wii game in my living room, and though I tried to keep this up after moving home it quickly became another thing defeated by laziness. I didn't get a gym membership because of the cost, but I think I would have had a hard time motivating myself to go anyway, and it would have been a waste of money.
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