Plans for the Summer

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “The Satisfaction of a List.”

---

I finished school for the summer last Friday, so alas, I will be on break for three whole months! *cheers* In past summers, I’ve often found myself sitting around on my butt all day wasting the time away. But I do not want that to happen this year. I want to make the most of my summer, and here’s a list of exactly what I hope to accomplish this summer. Kind of like a summer bucket list, you could say.

1. Earn over $2k and put most of it in savings

I have two jobs currently. I caddy at a country club that is literally 2 minutes from my house and I work for my dad’s computer business. At both of these, I make a pretty decent amount of money and this goal is a bit unrealistic. Heck, I’ll be lucky if I make $1k, but according to Minho in the Mazerunner, it’s better to shoot higher.

2. Write my college essay and perfect it

Pretty self-explanatory, but my friend told me that she planned to write her essay for appying to colleges in the fall, and that set off a spark inside of me. It’ll be 500 words that’ll make all the difference for my future.

3. Learn a cool talent

I’m thinking maybe I’ll learn how to baton. I’m decent at it now, but my mom was a majorette in high school. You know, one with the fire and all. Although I’ll never be that good, I want to be better. Or maybe I’ll do a back flip on the ground. That’d be pretty sick. Or maybe become skilled at writing right-handed (I’m a lefty). Idk, if you have any ideas for me, comment them!

4. Attend a pre-college program

Back in February, I applied for a scholarship to a summer program at Smith College and Harvard University in Massachusetts. I got into both of the colleges, and received $3000 from the scholarship. I’ve decided to attend Smith’s Young Woman’s Writing Workshop and I’m psyched! I’ll be staying there, in a dorm, for two weeks!

5. Volunteer

To be honest, I haven’t volunteered much in high school, and I’ve been told that colleges really look at that and extracurricular activities. Ever since I heard that, I’ve been trying to find places to volunteer! Currently, I volunteer at a local Boys and Girls Club, and I’ve found the experience highly valuable and quite fun. This summer, I’m volunteering at a Christian summer camp for a few weeks. I’ll be a photographer and I’ll take videos of the campers. Only downside is no electronics, no phones, and that means I won’t be able to update this blog. Eh, hopefully I’ll survive and hopefully you will too.

6. Keep up this blog

Perhaps this is one of the easiest things on my list. Or at least, it seems to be the case now. But my goal is to write a new post every day in June, and if I have time at Smith, to update while I’m there. It’s just so freeing to write what’s on my mind and I know if I continue this, I’ll be an overall better person.

7. Finish a novel

I’m writing a story right now called “The Day Hope was Murdered” and I definitely want to finish it by the time school starts back up again.

8. Keep playing guitar and piano

I’ve played piano for years and years, however, I just recently started teaching myself guitar. With all my schoolwork, I didn’t have much time to spend on playing instruments this year and that makes me sad. I definitely want to start playing a lot more this summer now.

9. Narrow down my college list

As of now, I have no idea where I want to attend college. You’ll know a bit more about this if you read my post from yesterday “What Scares the Crap out of Me.” My mom wants me to start applying in the fall, so I need to figure out some potential candidates.

10. Expand my vocabulary

My vocabulary isn’t that hot right now, and ever since I read John Green’s novel “The Fault in our Stars,” I’ve been obsessed with unique words. Also, when I took the SAT, my vocab section was one of the lowest. So, I have taken upon the challenge of learning not only one vocabulary word a day, but two. We’ll see how it goes.

As you can tell, I have a lot planned for this summer. I’ll be gone, away from home, for an entire month. It’ll be jam-packed and I’m happy about that. Most people want a calm, relaxing summer, and don’t get me wrong, I want that too. But sometimes, it can be too calm. And that’s not what I want. This is a lot and even I’m doubting myself right now, but I’ll let you know in August how much of this I accomplish.

What are your plans for the summer?