Melissa Holzberg, a freshman majoring in political communication, is The Hatchet’s contributing opinions editor.

For the first time since I enrolled in GW last August, I am an outcast. Well, I’m not actually an outcast. I just feel like one.

Instead of staying in D.C. this summer to nail an internship on the Hill or work for a news station, I chose to return home to suburban Long Island. I wanted to have one more summer living five minutes away from a beach and being surrounded by my family. However, just because I’m not going to be at GW this summer, doesn’t mean that D.C. shouldn’t be on my mind. Those of us who chose to go home for the summer should use this time away from the city to remember all of the reasons we came to GW in the first place.

We all easily voice our sarcastic #OnlyAtGW moments. Hardly a day went by this past year when I didn’t complain about where my tuition money was going when I had to wait 15 minutes for the elevator in my residence hall. I spent my whole second semester groaning about taking a science course that would have nothing to do with my future career goals, just to complete my general requirements.

Being at GW for a year jaded me. Somewhere around March, the Lincoln Memorial lost a little bit of its shimmer and just turned into a study spot. The School of Media and Public Affairs building lost a bit of its sparkle and J Street turned into a bad fast food restaurant when it was once a place where I would hang out and get my morning coffee.

But, the same science class I complained about was the only reason I finally got myself to a Smithsonian Museum and to the national zoo for lab assignments. I may have been “forced” to take my biological anthropology course for GPAC, yet the class gave me the motivation I needed to leave the Foggy Bottom bubble and explore new parts of D.C.

I’ve only been home in suburbia a few short days and I already miss those things I took for granted – like contemplating every life choice I ever made while in the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial, having my friends live at most three blocks away from me and how living away from home made me a more independent person. For the first time, I was given the opportunity to take classes in the subjects I was interested in and decide how I was going to tackle my work load.

Coming home for the summer doesn’t mean returning as the same person I was last August.

These next four months are a time to get motivated and excited for all we have to look forward to when we return to Foggy Bottom. I’m striving to spend fewer Sundays in bed watching Netflix next year and visit more farmer’s’ markets. Rather than find reasons to stay on campus, I’m going to attend at least one concert and D.C. sporting event next year. My first semester of my sophomore year will be full of journalism classes and dance classes that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to take at a different school. I get to come back from my D.C. hiatus in the fall reinvigorated by the reason I wanted to go to school in the nation’s capital: to learn.

GW has its faults, just as every other school. But take this escape from the D.C. humidity to remind why you chose to be a Colonial, because honestly, if an elevator takes too long to get somewhere, stairs are still an option.