Summertime!

Summertime

Yup, that's right guys, it's summertime here in America. We're out of school, relaxing at the beach, hanging in our air-conditioned houses, or having a blast at camp. Some of us have summer jobs to rake up some mulah, others sleep 'till noon and watch television all day to try and recover some of the brain cells that were fried throughout the course of the schoolyear. Now's the time when we get to hang out with our friends, go to concerts, stay up 'till all hours of the night ('cause we don't have to get up early tomorrow), vacation in the Bahamas, and have a blast before we are forced back into the daily grind after Labor Day. Since I'm a school issues editior and it's late July as I'm writing this, I decided that talking about tests and homework right now could potentially put some couch potatoes into brain-overload, so I decided to go with a nice easy topic this time around: the absence of school.

Boredom . . .

I don't really mind school all that much - that's why I'm the School Issues editor. But even I, the geekiest high schooler out there, have to admit that when it's 90 degrees in my 3rd floor classroom in the middle of June, I want out . . . fast. So why, after a month of doing nothing, am I practically counting the days until I shoulder my backpack and take off for the hallways of "Harborhell" (as we so affectionatly dubbed the place after final exams)? Boredom, my friends, the answer is boredom. Summer is a blast, there's no denying that, but when the boredom sets in - look out! You have one lethargic teenager sitting on your livingroom couch!!! So if you don't have a summer job, aren't signed up for sleepaway camp, or don't have a great vacation to look forward to, here's some ways to battle the boredom:

~Week-long sleepover marathons
         That's right, I said week-long. Round up a group of two or three friends who have nothing to do for the rest of the week, and have about five to six consecutive sleepovers. (alternate houses every few nights so you don't drive your parents insane . . . just a tip from yours truly) You can go to the beach, go rollerblading, play basketball with your neighbors, go to the mall (it's air conditioned there, remember?) -- do anything, just do it together. And, if worst comes to worst, it's always better to be bored with other people than to be bored alone.

~Get a job
         What better way to help pass the time than to get a job? Not only does it help to fight the boredom, but you get paid, too! Find something you like to do - maybe you could become a counsellor in training at a day camp, be a waiter or waitress, apply for a job at Barnes & Nobles if you like to read, or at Tower Records if you're into music. For those who aren't old enough to legally get a job, you could always run errands for neighbors, or do odd jobs like dog walking, window-washing, or lawn mowing. Over the summer, everyone needs a babysitter, because just like you, all the little kids are out of school and need someone to watch them throughout the day.

Don't want a boss, and don't care about a paycheck? Then I have another good idea!!!

~Volunteer!
         The local animal shelter could use you, I'm sure! Think of how many organizations there must be in your neighborhood alone that need volunteer workers like yourself to keep running? You could volunteer at the library, for a food drive, to help work on a politician's campaign, tutor little kids, join a program that cleans up the beach or city streets - the possibilities are endless! And aside from fighting the boredom, volunteering makes you feel a whole lot better about yourself. Yeah, yeah, I know you've heard that a thousand times before, but I swear it's not just a ploy to make you guys do heavy labor without pay (unless, of course, you want to drive up here and clean my room *hint hint*)! Volunteering is good for the soul. If you've been a bad kid this year, maybe a summer of volunteering will put you back on Santa's nice list.

~Other Random Suggestions That Don't Need a Paragraph to Explain Them:
         - ride your bike - rollerblade - walk your dog - go to the beach - go to the mall - hang out with friends - go to concerts - have a picnic - rearrange your room/attic/garage - do odd jobs around the house (and get payed for it!!!) - write a novel - start a diary - write a play - get some friends together and act out a play - make a home movie - throw a party just because - go to a baseball game - join a summer sports league - take an art class - read that book you've always wanted to read but never had time to - rent a good movie and invite some friends over to watch it - see a movie in the middle of the day because you'd never be able to do that if you were in school - start a band - write your own song - learn how to play the guitar - babysit for your neighbor - tutor someone over the summer - start learning a foreign language - take classes on photography - learn how to build a web page - and last but not least . . . have fun!!!

Something else to think about . . .

There are those of us here at Writing.Com who don't live in America. ivory , our teen relationships editor, is one of them. I don't know of any other people at the site who are currently still in school besides her, because (if you didn't already know this) Ivory lives in South Africa, and not only is is really cold down there, but she's studying frantically for her final exams. Poor, poor girl, huh?

So if you're ever bored beyond belief at any point this summer, think about Ivory . . . poor Ivory . . . cold Ivory . . . and realize that you'd rather be bored and warm than cramming for finals and cold. 'Cause you know what? Cramming + numb fingers and toes = bad. And that, my friends, is the only math that I'm going to do for the next month and a half, so please excuse me while I change the subject.

Ahhhhhh! The evil summer assignments are multiplying in the woodlands, waiting for the day they will rise to power and take over the world!!!

Okay, maybe not. But you've got to admit that it certainly feels that way when you get homework from your teacher in the mail, and it's due on the first day of school. Geez, you can't even put it off 'till after the summer's over. I personally have a monster summer assignment, and the very thought of it makes me twitch. I'm estimating that it would take me a week straight of hard, focused work to get it done. And, being very un-school-issues-editor-like, I'm probably going to wait until the very last week before school begins to start it.

Now, allow me to make an example of myself and tell you why this is the single stupidest thing you could ever do:

A) If the assignment takes longer than you planned, you're screwed.

B)You're going to burn yourself out before school even starts!

C) I read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men the day before school started last year, after having procrastinated about it for the entire summer. Guess who failed that book test? *jumps up and down, waving hands, screaming "I DID, I DID!!!!!"*

D) This assignment is the first impression your teacher will get of you. Do you really want it to be rushed and poorly done? Sometimes the bad feeling a teacher gets when grading an awful summer assignment carries over to the rest of the year. Would you REALLY want that failure in the back of your teacher's mind as they grade your midterms or finals? Nope, I didn't think so.

E) As all procrastinators know, though it might look like you can pull it off and get the whole thing done in time without the teacher ever knowing, something ALWAYS goes wrong in the end.

F) While all of your friends are having goodbye-summer-hello-school bashes, you'll be stuck at home writing essays.

G) Doing your summer assignment helps to fight boredom.

That's all I could think of, but there's got to be many, many more reasons not to leave your summer assignment for the last second, and I'm pretty sure I encountered most of them last year. You might be a skilled procrastinator, but sometime your luck's bound to run out, and odds are it'll be the summer assignment that kills you!

I'm sure that some kids & teens reading this don't have summer assignments to contend with. If you fall into that category, let it be known that I never want to talk to you again, you lucky little child!

-->Just kidding . . . sort of.

That's all, folks

Sorry guys, but this is the end for now. I know you wanted to hear me ramble on and on and on about my summer experiences but sorry, I just don't have the column space, and Earthy'd probably kill me for boring all of the T-Zine's readers to death. So buh bye, au revoir, ciao (however you want to say it) -- and I'll see you in September!!!

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This is the first installment in a series of pieces offering advice to future highschoolers. I highly recommend it to anyone who's nervous about their first year up at the high school!

ID: 428471   (Rated: 13+) How To Survive High School, Part 1  By Students, for students by R. N. Nepenthe

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