Spending the summer in State College. A wise choice.

Don't listen to the people who say it's painfully boring to spend the next few months in a half-empty college town. They're wrong.

I was here for nearly the entire summer last year, and I had the best summer of my life.

If you're a freshman, it's a good way to ease into college life (just like the admissions people say). If you're an upperclassman, it's a nice change of pace to experience the low-key side of this town.

You get a new appreciation for the same stores (think shorter lines) and landmarks (more room on the Old Main lawn) that you pass during the school year. I made a deliberate effort to relax last summer and enjoy being here instead of being in my usual state of perpetual motion. I sat on the steps of Old Main and watched the Frisbee players by day and the moon by night. That's something I never would have done during the year.

Despite being at school and taking classes, it still felt like summer. There is less pressure and a more relaxed feeling in the air. Lest I forget, summer session brings the only chance to enjoy the approximately two weeks of summer weather we get in State College.

Once I started to relax, I found myself spending more time with friends instead of focusing on work. That was the first time I allowed myself to do that.

The summer before my senior year I realized the importance of slowing down and having fun. I was always one of those people who speed-walked everywhere I went. I was never late for a class or a meeting, but I was so busy trying to pass slow walkers that I never took the time to look around and appreciate the college life.

Enjoy it here. What other time in our lives can we live in a town that caters to us, is dependent on us, is populated by people entirely in our age group, and provides nearly every service one could want within walking distance (other than, maybe, when we live in a retirement community)? Appreciate that we only get a couple of years in our lives to be Penn State students, but decades to be Penn State alumni.

One of those events that draw alumni back to town is Arts Festival. The weekend of Arts Fest is, by far, the best weekend of the summer. That's when all of your friends who went home for the summer and got real jobs come back and there are parties as far as the eye can see. For that weekend, State College returns to life and the streets are packed with people. Even if you're a lonely, miserable freshman (which I was), you can't help but find something fun to do during Arts Fest.

I turned 21 the weekend after Arts Fest last year, which was the biggest reason I wanted to stay in town.

If I had been at home, my bar tour probably would have consisted of walking from the kitchen to my room. Much to my surprise, some people took me out, despite my lack of prior drinking experience. It was the first birthday in years that I actually spent with other people, and definitely the best one in a long time.

The slower pace of Penn State during the summer is something everyone should experience at least once while they are students.

It gave me a new appreciation for this place, and I have some really good memories from last summer. More importantly, I realized the importance of slowing down and spending more time with friends instead of rushing from activity to activity. That's a perspective that is valuable any time of the year.