Year after year, I promise myself that summer will be the best three months of my life, the best summer I've ever had. And year after year, it's subpar. But this year, my friends, is different. Here's the gameplan.
1. Stay healthy. Don't even aim to lose weight. Aim to love yourself more and nourish yourself with good, healthy foods and positive physical activity. When you want to binge eat, and all you really need is a big bag of chips or a box of donuts, shoot for a snack-sized bag of chips or half a donut. Don't hate yourself for your cravings, your lack of motivation, or anything, for that matter. Just treat your body the way it deserves to be treated (which is great, because you are great).
2. Wear as little makeup as possible, as often as possible. Not only is the sun, salt water, and chlorine water AWESOME for your skin, but it's time you realize and fully understand just how beautiful you are without makeup on. It seems simple and surface-level, but self-love starts with some of the smallest steps, like learning that you don't need to change yourself to like yourself.
3. Pray. Pray when you're tired. Pray when you're losing motivation. Pray when you're missing school or frustrated with home. Pray, genuinely, for others. Pray for the people of your past, present, and future. Pray because God is good and answers prayers in ways you never could've drawn up for yourself.
4. Say yes. If someone wants to come over, say yes. Boat day? Yes. Babysit your niece and nephew? Yes. Cover someone's shift? Yes. You might have the best night of your life with those people that spent the night, even if you were tired when the asked to come over. Those little sweetie children are only tiny nuggets once, embrace it and love on them as much as you can. Make that money girl, what harm is there in a seven hour shift?
5. Make money. Save that money. Get creative. Sell your "crappy" paintings. Someone might think they're not half bad. Clean out someone's garage for them. Dog sit for a week even though you say you don't like animals (you secretly do). Then turn around, put it in the bank, and don't touch it because you don't need to. Spend money on experiences. If a road trip opportunity comes up, take it. But don't blow $50 a week on 7-Eleven and Chipotle. What would Kanye do?
6. Make music and listen to music. You love it. Nothing liberates you more than being locked in the basement for hours at a time, putting your heart on a piece of paper and letting your emotions drip onto the keys of a crappy, yard sale-bought keyboard. Share that music with people, but don't let others' opinions define your opinion of it.
7. Write. Write for the sake of writing, because getting your thoughts down into words makes you feel better. Write in a diary, blog just because, share your writing with people, or don't. Sometimes it's even more empowering to keep your work to yourself, like a well-kept secret.
8. Let random acts of kindness work their magic on others and yourself. Randomly text the person you haven't talked to in decades, and tell them you hope their summer is going really well. Comment on someone's Insta pic and tell them how beautiful they are. Cover the bill when you take your friend out to lunch. Tell a stranger you like her shirt.
9. Spend as much time outside as you can. Explore new back roads. Take a trip to go kayaking in a creek you've never been to. Spend a day on the boat; go out at 11 a.m. and come back at six in the evening, sun-kissed and exhausted. Lay out at the pool because the sun makes you feel good, being tan is a beautiful thing, and the pool isn't just fun, but good for you, too.
10. Find the happy medium between relaxing and lazy. Be adventurous, but don't tire yourself out. Instead of taking the day to stay inside and watch Netflix, only take the morning. There's nothing worse than realizing it's 7 p.m. and you've done absolutely NOTHING all day. Indulge yourself in the things that relax you, but don't let them take you down.
