When Summer Doesn’t Feel Like a Break
For a long time, summer meant freedom.
No alarm clocks. No homework. Maybe a job or a trip—but summer had rhythm. You were a student, and summer was your break.
But now?
You’re out of high school. Maybe you just graduated. Maybe it’s been a couple years. Maybe you’re in college, or not. Working full-time, or kind of floating.
Everyone keeps asking, “What’s next?” when you’re still figuring out where you even are.
This season can feel full of possibility and also totally disorienting. Like you’re supposed to be launching into “real life,” but no one dropped the how-to guide in your inbox. Summer is still happening around you, but it doesn’t feel like a break anymore—it just feels...off.
The world keeps saying, “This is your time to shine!” but you’re over here just trying not to lose your Stanley, stay hydrated, answer texts, and remember why you walked into the kitchen.
You might feel busy but unmotivated. Restless but unsure what you're even craving. You let your Snapchat streak go for the first time in forever—accidentally. Group chats feel quiet. Your sense of direction? Questionable.
You might feel pressure to have it all figured out. Or to be doing something impressive. Or to seem fine, even if you’re overwhelmed, unsure, or just kind of numb.
If that’s you, you’re not failing. You’re just in a major life transition.
Did you know the DSM-5-TR (basically the giant mental health manual therapists use) actually names this feeling? It’s called an Adjustment Disorder. Which is a fancy way of saying: “This change is hard, and it’s messing with you a bit.” Totally real. Totally normal.
This season might be asking for:
More grace, less pressure.
Space to figure out who you are outside of expectations.
Room to feel—not just keep it moving.
Support from real conversations, not just TikToks and hot takes.
You’re not behind. You’re not broken. You’re in a messy, sacred, very real part of growing up.
Therapy can help hold that space.
Yes, we all have those friends who feel like our personal therapist sometimes. But real therapy? It’s different. It’s a place where you don’t have to edit, filter, or explain away your feelings. A space to get curious about your story, your patterns, your identity shifts—without judgment or pressure to figure it all out right now.
Summer might not feel like a break this year—but maybe it can still be a season of softness. Of checking in. Of building a life that feels more like you.
You don’t have to have the answers.
You just have to start listening.
As you invest in the most important relationship in your life—your relationship with yourself—you’ll begin to feel clearer, more connected, and more at home in your own story.
You don’t need to be somewhere by now.
You just need to be here.
