Your last classes have finally come to an end. Your exams are now a done deal, whether or not you did well on them. Your schedule next semester will probably consist of new classes, new professors, and new work.

Summer's here.

So... what now? Your time might be limited by a summer job or internship, that will hopefully provide you with money or experience to make your future goals appear a little less further away than before. But even with that, many people are left with a lot of time on their hands.

That "time" is the reason why I hated weekends in high school.

See, I wasn't born in the U.S., and in France, you don't really require a car to get around. The bus system was very good, and a lot of things were walking distance from my house anyway. Hanging out with friends wasn't too complicated.

Then, I moved to the U.S. Here, in even the biggest cities in North Carolina in terms of population, you can't really go anywhere if you don't have someone who can drive you around.

So I dreaded weekends in high school.

Boredom would settle when came the free time. I had so much, to do what I wanted, but didn't know how to occupy it. I didn't have a car either, so hanging out with friends wasn't really an option.

Thankfully, I don't have this problem this summer. I recently got into making instrumentals, started writing articles for this website, have a car, and have been forcing myself out of the house, back into reading, and back into playing the piano.

I have things to work towards.

And that's something we tend to neglect telling people. We encourage bingeing shows and playing video games all day when the summer comes, but rarely have I seen it have a positive impact on people over the long run.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have fun; you should definitely have lazy days and somewhere you have fun and just kinda slack off. But you'll be better off if you put some of the free time you have now towards an activity you know you have or want to do, but that's hard just getting started.

Maybe it's going to a cafe to write that article you know you should write, or work on music for half an hour. Start it small. A fraction of the day, two days a week. Increase the amount later. You should shoot for consistency, not rush into quantity.

That's my general guideline for having a good summer.