It’s the time of year that students look forward to. Grades are in, exams are finished and school is over. Good times lay ahead, hanging at the beach and playing video games. Sleeping in late or sleeping over with friends. Hours on your phone and watching television. The times we can’t ever get enough of. This is all possible because of something we call summer vacation.

Nobody knows the true beginning of summer vacations, but most researchers from PBS and other similar sources believe that summer vacation began in the 1800s, to give time for children to harvest crops. However, other researchers theorize that summer vacation was created to relieve stress from the brains of children. The brain is like a muscle. Too much work on any muscle in the body causes strain and damage, especially on a young child. Whatever the origins, it quickly embedded itself into the schedules of schools around the world and is now known as summer break.

When the door to summer break is opened, options are abound.

“I’m going play video games, be lazy and sleep a lot,” freshman Tor Ishikawa said.

Despite its advantages, like everything else in life, summer vacation has its drawbacks. Many students have one thing in common with summer break: they forget some of the knowledge that they  learned throughout the year.

“I forget a lot during the summer,” freshman Todd Hoyle said.

There has been a recent case against summer vacation, saying that low-income families who can’t afford summer programs have almost nothing to do throughout the break.

Summer can hit you hard academically if you are not prepared. However, the point of summer vacation now is to have good times and to refresh before the next school year begins, so take advantage of it.