What do you do when you return home from a year of college that was filled with friends that live right down the hall, a mountain of homework requiring completion, and crazy parties on the weekend? You go back home, plan to have the best summer of your life, and then succumb to laying in your bed with a bag of chips binge-watching whatever Netflix series you started watching in college to procrastinate your homework in the first place. Don't give up. If you are still planning to have a really great summer break, read these tips below to find out how.
1. Hangout With High School Friends
This is the time where you can finally trade in all those Skype calls in for some face-to-face interaction, which admittedly feels good. Plan ahead for an amazing three months of amusement park rides, picnics, pool parties, baseball games, and many more adventures. (Disclaimer: This option is only effective if you still keep in contact with people you went to high school with.)
2. Get A Job/Internship
After heading home from a year of college with no way to make a substantial income, unless you somehow saved money from your on-campus job, your bank account is probably at the $2.34 mark if your lucky. Why spend your summer lounging around the house in the same pair of sweatpants, that you probably shouldn't be wearing in this hot weather, when you could be making money to support yourself for next summer and or any trips that you might be going on in the future? It is also a fantastic way to occupy your time and something to put on your resume.
3. Take A Summer Class That Will Allow You To Travel
Do you want to spend the summer in Germany? Walking on the Great Wall of China? Want to cross off getting to go to Washington DC off of your bucket list? Juniata is one college that provides these kinds of ample opportunities for their students. Getting to travel automatically means that you are seeing the world beyond the screen of your computer, you are making memories with others, and you won't be bored if your surrounded by new adventures around you. (Disclaimer: Save money. Take photos)
4. Workout
If you didn't have the time in college to go the gym, this is now a perfect time to lift some weights and hit the cardio machines.Trust me when I say that working out might not be as fun as laying in bed, but exercising is a great way to get in shape, avoid health problems in the future, and exercise makes you significantly happier.
5. Learn, Read, Memorize & Create
Have an instrument that you want to learn how to play? A book that you bought last October that you couldn't read, that was collecting dusty spider webs, because you had no time at all to read it? Are you a theatre student with some monologues that you did in your acting class and or do you have an audition for graduate school next year that needs monologues to be memorized? Remember when you wanted to write that book and or take that painting class? Summer is the perfect time to do any and everything you couldn't do in college. Write that novel. Paint flowers. Learn how to play guitar. Read that murder mystery book that wasn't assigned in your literature class. Make those cookies that you wanted to make, after finding the recipe online. Just because school is done for the summer doesn't mean you should stop learning about the things that interest you. Expanding your mind should never take a hiatus.
Stop slipping into the summer slump. Stop saying "I'm bored." So if you start slumping into summer boredom and don't know what to do, read this article and apply this advice to your life today to guarantee a less boring summer.
