Kim Connor Streich
This post was written by an external contributor. Devin Thomas discusses the various ways to spend your free time over summer.
Summer can be a daunting time for a student or recent graduate. The pressure to stay productive despite the unprecedented amount of time to spend doing your own thing can be intimidating. Plus, if you decide to forgo productivity and embrace slacker life, it can leave you with a feeling of ennui.
It’s a period of time that comes with the chance to do anything and, inversely, endless opportunities to do absolutely nothing. What I’m here to tell you is that embracing both is the best way to maximise your summer experience.
Get yourself a summer internship
Working over the summer is not the most fun way to spend your time, but it is one of the most productive. Whilst I don’t want to urge you to spend your summer doing something you don’t want to do, having some structure can enhance the free time you do have – and it’s not too late!
Whether you’re going to be looking for a grad job in September or just want some extra experience stored up for when you finish your degree, a summer internship is a great idea for any student lacking in interesting ideas for the summer.
Travel
Having been stuck in the bubble of a university campus and its surrounding city for a few years can be isolating. It can be important to take some time while you’re able to see somewhere new and explore the unfamiliar.
If money is an issue, combine this with the first tip and utilise your free time to work toward saving up for a holiday. If however you’re truly resistant to the idea of a working holiday, a quick Google search will reveal flights to somewhere in Europe for less than ВЈ50, as well as cheap hostels. Get yourself somewhere warm and get yourself a drink.
Go home
One of the less thrilling aspects of uni life is the prospect of not seeing your friends from home for long stretches of time. Equally saddening is the prospect of missing out on your parents’ cooking. Return to both with a short stretch at home!
If you value your freedom too much to stay with your parents, invite your home friends to stay in your student city for a few days. The wealth of unique things to show them in your home away from home will be a nice change of pace to your everyday routine.
Stay in
The free time you have now is yours. Relish it. Revel in it. Eat a family sized bag of crisps and watch six seasons of a Netflix show in half as many days. You’ve done another year of work – you deserve it.
If you’re not the kind of person who can be happy lounging around, there are still options available to you that don’t necessitate leaving the house. You could completely renovate your CV, get some research done into a future career, or get a headstart on your reading for next year. Staying in can be just as worthwhile as the most productive library days.
Go to a festival
There are few better excuses for indulgence than the reckless abandon and tendency for complete madness that comes with visiting a festival.
Being a student may be the best excuse to get drunk any of us need, but why not do it on a sunny weekend where you’re forced to sleep in a cramped tent with three other wasted students? If you’re more culturally inclined, there are dozens of UK festivals that cater more for the artsy.
Festivals are an excellent opportunity to experience new things, and summer is the prime time for this. From trying to camp with inept friends, to visiting amazing locations and – most importantly – the music, festivals are an amazing opportunity to live life to its fullest and make lasting memories with the people you love.
The best advice I can give would be to get out of the house whenever you feel like it and make this summer the best it can be for you!
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