You know those “ultimate” summer bucket lists? The ones full of spontaneity, money, friends, and for some reason at least one activity that involves paint? Although they could make for a fun-filled summer, they are a bit unrealistic, right? The summer of a college student is typically filled with work, summer classes, internships, traveling, and other odds in ends. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for unplanned road trips, music festivals, or paint slip ‘n slides. As a broke student lacking time and unable to utilize those amazing (note the sarcasm) bucket lists, hOw Am i SuPpOsEd To MaKe ThE mOsT oF mY sUmMeR???
Here are 20 things to make the most of your summer that are practical, virtually free, and not incredibly boring. Please, try and contain your excitement.
1. Epic Sock Quest: Do whatever it takes to locate and match all your socks- toss out or repurpose the loners (see #12 )
2. Marie Kondo Your Clothes: If you don’t know what that means, watch an episode of “Tidying Up” on Netflix and go nuts
3. Learn How to Say a Sentence in Another Language: Just remember that google translate isn’t always accurate
4. Practice Your Penmanship: Brush up on your cursive, look on Pinterest for different font inspiration, or just practice printing to maximize legibility
5. Dance in Front of a Mirror: Whether it’s a quick lil’ whip or a full-on Super Bowl halftime show performance
6. Make Some Lists: List your favorite movies, a to-do list, an actual bucket list, a grocery list, a list of reasons you love WSS, etc
7. Take a Magic Eraser to Your Walls: Especially satisfying if for some reason your walls are so dirty they’re a different color
8. Write Some Product Reviews: When it comes to online shopping, reviews are of utmost importance and somebody has to write them
9. Alphabetize or Color Code Something: Organizing can be therapeutic and a great distraction
10. Listen to Your Friends’ Favorite Songs: Ask your friends what their all-time favorite song is and then carefully listen to each one- you may find something new and you’ll learn a lot about your friends
11. Read the Featured Article on Wikipedia: After that, browse around some more to acquire some new fun facts that no one really cares to know
12. Make Sock Bunnies: Use your unpaired socks from earlier and make Phoebe’s sock bunnies from season 6 episode 17 of Friends
13. Unsubscribe From Mailing Lists: What’s more annoying than going through your inbox to unsubscribe from everything? Receiving unwanted emails from companies you either don’t care about, only subscribed to for a discount, or don’t remember subscribing to in the first place
14. Rearrange Your Furniture: Remember to walk out then back in the room and fight the urge to move it back because change is scary
15. See if You Can Pat Your Head and Rub Your Tummy: If you can, give yourself a pat on the back and if you can’t, then try and learn just because
16. Facetime/call/text a Loved One: I am sure that they would love to hear from you
17. Rediscover Your Favorite Childhood Games: Online games, outdoor games, pretend games, car games, etc
18. Do a Mental Scan of Your Muscles: Relax your tense muscles, you may not even realize how tense you are
19. Hydrate Your Body and Skin: Slap on some moisturizer and chug a glass of water
20. Start to Mentally Prepare for Fall Semester: Remember that “sylly week” isn’t really a thing for STEM students unfortunately
All jokes aside, I know a lot of these are rather bland and random, however, there is a reason. There can be a lot of pressure to have an eventful summer with constant worry that you’re “wasting time” by just taking a second to chill. It is important to remember that you do not have to spend loads of money, constantly go on adventures, and practically drown in paint to have a successful summer. A successful summer could include re-establishing healthy habits lost to spring semester, earning some money, gaining work experience, learning a new skill, or taking care of some GE’s. When you do have some down time, mundane tasks like some of the ones listed above can help satisfy our need to constantly busy ourselves, without sacrificing a lot of time, money, and energy. Who knows, you may even find some of them to be fun. With all that being said, if you have the means and desire to partake in some exciting, paint-filled activities absolutely go for it! And even if no one actually does a single thing on this list, I hope it inspired some of you to use this time to your advantage and have your version of a successful summer!