It’s your last summer before college starts, and if you’re like me you do not want to put it to waste. You have just wrapped up four years of hard work and now get to pack up and leave your hometown, say goodbye to friends and family and go to your new home in college. But one day, in the beginning of summer, before the big move, you look down at the empty bag of potato chips and sodas at feet, eyes burning after your ninth episode of your binge show that day, and you start to think to yourself that you are not making the most of your summer. For me, my last summer before college was all about becoming self dependent and learning new things. So to avoid becoming a couch potato all summer and rather becoming more self dependent, here are 3 tips to making the most of your last summer before college: Find Time to Relax Let’s be real: it’s the summer and you want to be on the beach somewhere turning that pasty year long skin, into a golden bronze. To me, vacation is the number one step in enjoying your summer, but don’t get confused by my beach analogy, there are many types of vacations and ways to relax. Personally, I love to be outside whether that be at a beach, the hiking in the woods, or simply just sitting outside in my backyard. After being in the classroom all year, it’s time to move from that environment into another and make time for yourself to relax. My other recommendation to help you achieve summer relaxation is to stay as far away from schoolwork as possible. It truly is time to give your brain a rest. College is going to be 4 more years of harder (most of the time harder) work, and so it’s time to take the vacation that 4 years of high school has earned you and find the time to really relax. Get a Job A job really? In the summer? I know it seems bad, but the little bit of extra money is great. For me, sitting in my car delivering pizzas three times a week for a total of 15 hours was the best small job I could ask for. Most importantly, it taught me about a business, and the way a certain type of cash flow works, money in exchange for goods but this time I wasn’t on the spending side. Then there is also the fact that I was earning my own money, it was mine to do with what I please. This is a great feeling to have and an important one to experience BEFORE you go to college. I can speak from experience when I say money disappears quickly. So it is important to learn from the moment that you open your wallet two days after a paycheck and are staring at the bottom of it. You quickly start running through the list of everything you bought over those days, and come to the ultimate realization that you have no more money. It will teach you to budget and make good use of the money you have, a step in the direction of self dependence. Prepare Yourself For Life Ahead While this sounds like an extremely scary and stressful topic, it’s not. All this means is that it’s time to learn how to do all the things necessary to survive on your own in college, because if you don’t, pretty soon you will be staring blankly at the washing machine on your floor not knowing the difference between darks and lights. For me, I tried to focus on what I liked to call “adult things,” so activities such as learning how to do laundry and cook. Furthermore, as a business major I also focused on things such as properly tying a tie and ironing a shirt. Practicing these seemingly small activities gave me a feeling of self dependence like no other, and after many white shirts turning pink, many ties becoming tangled, and dozens of ironing holes put into shirts; I got it down. Now I get up in the morning before an interview and am able to take care of myself, something that most freshman in college surprisingly can’t do. Use your summer to get ahead of the curve and focus on these little activities that will prepare you for your life ahead. Source
