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<\/a>Tips for relaxing without being a slacker.<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\nSo, you’re graduating from high school and, as much as you might like to take the summer off to rest up for college, you can\u2019t really afford to slack off like that.\u00a0 You want to lay a good foundation this summer to build toward a successful first year on campus.\u00a0 What follows is a quick list of seven essentials to help you make that happen.<\/em><\/p>\n Before we begin, let\u2019s assume you will socialize and have fun with your friends before heading off to school, so I won’t cover that here.\u00a0 However, with summer jobs, things can get busy, so be sure not to fall into an all-work-and-no-play groove, earning cash for college, only to look up in August and realize you haven’t seen your friends.\u00a0 Go ahead and see your friends.\u00a0 Have some fun.\u00a0 Live a little\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n No one thinks well when tired.\u00a0 For each of the following items you’ll need to be well rested, clear headed, lucid and capable of deep thought and reflection (You know, like most of your Monday mornings over the past year).\u00a0 Oh, and you\u2019ll need to write (type?) this stuff down.\u00a0 Sure, the best thinking starts in your head, but it germinates on the page where you can look at your ideas, they can stare back at you, and you both can improve together.<\/p>\n Think back on HS as a means of knowing thyself.\u00a0 What were your successes? Failures?\u00a0 What do you wish you could do over?\u00a0 Consider what were you good at in terms of “being a student” (i.e.. we’re you good at taking notes?\u00a0 Good planning and studying?\u00a0 Did you use time wisely?).\u00a0 What were you good at socially?\u00a0 Did you make friends quickly, or was it a slow build?\u00a0 Did you keep good friends?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 How?\u00a0 Think back to your freshmen and sophomore years.\u00a0 That’s when you were just starting out in a new place, which you are about to do all over again. Consider what went well that first and second year, what approaches you’d like to repeat when you go off to college, and what you’d do differently.<\/p>\n Speaking of starting college, most of your focus will be on getting a good start in September, but summertime gives you a great opportunity to think about the following June.\u00a0 That’s right, June!\u00a0 By then you will have finished your first year with all the academic and social experiences that come with it.\u00a0 Before you begin the school year, however, it\u2019s a good idea to imagine what you’d like to be able to say in June about how it went.\u00a0 Would you like to look back on your first year and say you got a 3.5 GPA? Made one good friend?\u00a0 Joined a club?\u00a0\u00a0 These are your hopes, and these hopes should become your goals for year one.\u00a0\u00a0 (Reminder: Write these down.\u00a0 They will come in handy in a moment.)<\/p>\n Surely, one of your hopes\/goals is to have a good roommate experience.\u00a0\u00a0 That will be your ‘home life’ and if it\u2019s not good, the rest of your life will follow suit.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 If you’re not getting along with your roommate, it’ll be tough to focus on school day in and day out. So after you’ve completed the roommate questionnaire they gave you from school, try this one at CarpeCollege.com<\/a> to help you identify only the ‘deal-breakers’.<\/p>\n For the rest of the non-deal-breaker issues, you and your roommate(s) are just going to have to be tolerant of each other.\u00a0 It helps to recognize that if you were too alike, things would be boring.\u00a0 So embrace your idiosyncrasies and weird habits.\u00a0 It’ll keep life interesting, and you\u2019ll have better stories to tell.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re done addressing your life with others, you can then focus on your life with you.\u00a0 In order to achieve all your hopes\/goals, you\u2019ll need a plan.\u00a0 You will want a rich life filled with great learning and great new campus fun, and in order to fit it in, you need to plan well.\u00a0 What kind of planner would you like to use?\u00a0 Your school will probably give you one to write in when you get to orientation, and that should be a good one.\u00a0 Maybe you want to use an online calendar synched with your phone.\u00a0 Whatever it is, summertime is a great time to build a template for planning.\u00a0 If you know your class times, load ’em in.\u00a0 If you want to exercise, get that in your planner. Studying regularly during the week means more social time on weekends.\u00a0 Plan for it!\u00a0 Want a club or campus activity? Add a couple of hours in the middle of the week.\u00a0 Beginning to put a plan in place now makes for better news in June.\u00a0 And remember to WRITE IT DOWN (or type it in).<\/p>\n Oh yeah, and don\u2019t let your family touch it.\u00a0 It\u2019s YOUR planner, not theirs. Welcome to life on your own (aka owning your life).<\/p>\n Before you leave, this is the best gift you can give your parents.\u00a0 Sure, you’ve probably seen too much of each other, but its been mostly centered on you and your college-related stuff.\u00a0 The purpose of this day is to give them a great day with you on their terms where you can just enjoy each other and set the tone fore a great relationship when you part company.<\/p>\n I’m betting that some sort of internship experience should be part of your collegiate years.\u00a0 Prior to that formal experience, it\u2019s a great idea to get some informal career shadowing in and, believe it or not, this summer is a great time to start.\u00a0\u00a0 Sit for a half hour and make a list of all the interesting professional adults you know.\u00a0 Your parents, aunts or uncles.\u00a0 Your friend\u2019s dad or older sister.\u00a0 Your doctor or favorite teacher.\u00a0 Everyone you can think of.\u00a0 Take the top two you\u2019re most interested in, contact them, and ask if you could shadow them for a day over winter break. This is a wonderful way to dip your toes into lots of career possibility waters to see what you might like or dislike.<\/p>\n Plan to shadow people a few times during each break (including summers).\u00a0 During each visit, be sure to ask for additional names of potential professionals to shadow in the future.\u00a0 That way, it\u2019s a self-perpetuating system, and all you need to do is set up appointments, show up, and say thank you (and write thank you notes).\u00a0 Combine these \u2018skimming the surface\u2019 shadowing experiences with your more intensive internship experiences, and you’ll have the perfect melding of breadth and depth, providing great career perspective when graduation time rolls around.<\/p>\n Graduation time?!\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Just like high school, it’ll be here before you know it.<\/p>\n Tips for relaxing without being a slacker. So, you’re graduating from high school and, as much as you might like to take the summer off to rest up for college, you can\u2019t really afford to slack off like that.\u00a0 You want to lay a good foundation this summer to build toward a successful first year on campus.\u00a0 What follows … Continue Reading But try these Seven Steps to Seize your Senior Summer, too\u2026.<\/h2>\n
1. Rest<\/b><\/h4>\n
2. Reflect<\/b><\/h4>\n
3. The June Question<\/b><\/h4>\n
4. Roommate questionnaire<\/b><\/h4>\n
5. EMO (Not the music and skinny jeans.\u00a0 It\u2019s your \u2018Effectiveness M.O.\u2019)<\/b><\/h4>\n
6. One Day of You<\/b><\/h4>\n
7.\u00a0 Shadow <\/b><\/h4>\n
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