An legendary passage of time where the ice cream man is your best friend. When ESPN is dominated by baseball highlights and LeBron coverage while celebrity bikini candids grace the cover of National Enquirer.
A time of jet skis, grilling hamburgers and drinking cheap beer (the latter is actually a year-round favorite among LSU students). The heat index is higher than the tallest slide at the enchanting Blue Bayou.
Of course, we are talking about the great season that is summer.If you are reading these words the old school way, on a printed piece of paper, chances are you are in Baton Rouge for the summer.
You’ve seen the difference from school year. The traffic is much better, the bars are less crowded, and it rains almost every single day.
What made you stay here?
There are so many options available for summer. It seems like the big three are staying in Baton Rouge for work or school, traveling abroad or going back home.
While some may live the dream of a hedonistic three-month break from school that consists of falling asleep at the pool after swigging 40s all day, plenty of students stay busy with summer school.
I commend the focus of said students, as school in the summer time is torture for me. I was enrolled in a class for one day this summer term but dropped it quickly, as I felt I needed that aforementioned break from class responsibilities.
Younger students often return home for summer to live the life of a townie. I did this after my freshmen year and would not want to do it again.
Sure the free meals and rent are great, but only a certain percentage of people can tolerate their parents for three months on end.I am not one of them.
Sorry, Mom and Dad.
In my opinion the best option for students in the summer is long distance traveling. Interesting destinations can be found all over the globe, from lucrative internships to volunteering to study abroad programs. I’d be very down to escape the sweltering Louisiana humidity and go to New Zealand or somewhere for a bit.
If you are able to take advantage of such an opportunity the summer seems like a great time to do it. There is much to see outside of our little world that is LSU.
So maybe you aren’t in Ecuador or some other exotic location. Excitement can still be found. Fortunately, Louisiana truly lives up to its billing as “Sportsman’s Paradise” as many of us head to the lakes and rivers of the state. And of course there is the timeless drunken excursion that is a tubing trip.
Regardless of your location, you should be either working or in school. Too much time on one’s hands only leads to boredom and can complete the mutation of a dashing scholar into a couch potato.
I didn’t really have a choice on where to live this summer. Baton Rouge hasn’t been bad, but I’m definitely jealous of everyone who got to travel long distances. I did go on a few small vacations, which helped ease the boredom of Baton Rouge but ultimately would have loved to run with the bulls in Spain or go an African safari.
Like all good things, summer must come to an end. It admittedly does get old when you sit at the pool everyday and someone has to put on “Doin’ Time” by Sublime for the 1,000th time. Before you know it, everyone else will be back in town and the first day of classes will commence.
That’s when the whole shit show starts up again.
—-Contact Cory Cox [email protected].