The perfect Summer: What does it look like?

Academic years in high school often tend to feel like a never ending marathon, and students find themselves consistently trying to make it to the end of the line. But where does the end fall? Universally, this intellectual race stops, or at least pauses, with the arrival of summer break. A time for catching up on your sleep, breathing air that is not clouded by the anxiety of falling behind, watching trashy reality TV and ideally; even picking up a few new hobbies. However, students these days have redefined the idea of the perfect summer as a time of hyper-productivity. To do lists are made, internship opportunities pinned down, and the trend of participation in networking workshops has risen unprecedentedly. The 3 months spent not taking regular 50 minute classes goes by  in rushing from one academy to another in preparation of various entry tests. But is this really the way to spend your summer after college? The experts might disagree.

Some educationalists have started to argue that summer was rightfully supposed to be the time for winding down, a break to catch your breath and sip some water before going back in the field. These breaks are especially vital because they are a time to reflect on your victories and mistakes, refining your skills but not overburdening yourself. And especially, getting back in touch with your own self. Not the academic weapon, but the person who used to bake daily but barely has time for it anymore, or the die hard reader who hasn’t picked up a book in years.

Reflection as an academic requirement:

If I still haven’t convinced you, think of it this way: by senior year, all of you will be required in one way or another to write a very personal college essay. By this time you will realise that any personality you had except that of a student had been sacrificed to your board of examinations a long time ago. This is where a break comes in; many professionals claim that students need to utilise their break as a time of reflection, in other words, to travel through their own journey. Think of the difficult thoughts that you shoved deep in your mind because you didn’t have time to let them bother you, see what has shaped you in the past few years, have fun like you don’t remember doing it, come to terms with yourself; both your achievements and shortcomings. You will need all these “plot points” to write that common app essay. You will realise, only when the question “why did you choose your major?” is in front of you, that you actually have no real idea. Now I know this sounds like the work of a few hours and not a whole three months, but it's harder than you think.

So what can you do to revive that old connection with yourself?

Spoiler alert: it's not long hours of pondering. Believe it or not, your summer can be both refreshing and productive. A few tips I would suggest you take up are as followed:

1. Don’t take up too many side quests, two internships instead of your chosen five would be good.
2. Dig up those old bucket lists, try and do the things you always wanted to do. (i.e.  solo trip?)
3. Try hobbies like journalling, if that's too boring for you, make videos of your life, edit them, create something that’s about you.  (mood boards? Scrapbooks? Maybe even your rendition of the music video of your favourite song)
4. Don’t be afraid of your thoughts, don’t immediately pace up when things get slow. Revel in the time you have, use it to make changes in yourself; whether that means revisiting old friendships or just the fears you push away. Don’t distract yourself from the harder questions, confront them.
5. Spend time with your loved ones, go see your grandmother, sit in the living room, hangout!!!
6. Give time to college applications, study a bit every day, don’t bite more than you can chew.
7. Lastly, go easy on yourself, you’ll be just fine :)
   

I can’t tell you if the perfect summer exists, but I know that it’s fine to have one just good enough. Not necessarily one in which you’re a power weapon, but a person.