Just a few months ago Chico State campus was swarming with antsy students waiting to get out. Summer vacation was the topic of every discussion. Whether you were laying out by the pool trying to get a head start on that summer tan, inside the library studying for those last few finals or at the gym struggling to achieve a last minute summer body.

Now that summer break is coming to an end I cant help but ask myself was it really all that? And does anyones summer ever actually live up to their expectations?

I pictured my summer vacation being very relaxing. I honestly thought that I would be spending every day on the beach, hanging out with old friends and finally learning how to surf.

Instead, I spent the majority of my summer days working at a small pizza restaurant in downtown San Diego, bussing tables and running deliveries on a motorized bike. The whole surfing thing didn’t play out too well either. Long story short, surfing looks more like summer 2017 goals at this point.

Summer break, which once meant all responsibilities somehow disappeared, seems to no longer have this magical power for us college students. Now it is just more classes, jobs and, not to mention those jobs you don’t even get paid for, internships.

So this brings me to the main question and also the title of this piece. School year vs summer, which is more fun?

I guess it all comes down to how well you planned your break before it actually started, because even for those of us with no summer classes to attend and no summer jobs to worry about, there is always the struggle of deciding on what to do with free time.

As a Chico State student myself, I know firsthand just how much fun we have during the school year. Whether we are celebrating the notorious Chicoween (that is Halloween for you new kids, just one of our many holidays) or just an ordinary Thursday night, there is always something to do. College towns like Chico thrive during the school year because that is when most of us are actually in town. As soon as we hit the month of May and finals week comes to an end the majority of us leave.

We go back home to visit our families and stay under their roofs for a while. Fun right? Probably for the first two weeks max. At first being home is something new and so it can be quite entertaining. You’re running around to all the spots you use to hit up with your friends in high school, and if you’re from So Cal you’re definitely eating tacos. But after all that you’ve still seen it all, and done it all. Those that do stay in Chico not only have to put up with the unbearable summer heat, but also the fact that it turns into a ghost town. One word, boring.

I realize that some readers may not agree, but if you’ve made it this far down and you are still thinking that summer 2016 was an epic blast, just ask yourself this one question.

Can your summer break really outdo the school year, when you go to Chico State?

Mina Marjanovic can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.