At the start of a new school year, people ask each other what they did over the summer. The response by many is “it was boring.” However, students can use this time to be more productive instead.
Rather than sitting at home, go out and find jobs ready to be filled, friends waiting for a companion, organizations looking for volunteers, and places waiting to be visited. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, teens spend on average 2.3 hours looking at social media and texting compared to 1.4 hours spent actually socializing with each other. This number can be changed if teens leave the digital world in exchange for the real world.
Some students may have never filled out a job application or applied for a work permit, but they have options right within reach. People in the Career Center are there to assist students going through the process of filling out a job application for the first time.
Places like St. Mary’s Dining Hall and Mercy Housing at Gleason Park are constantly looking for people to volunteer. Being involved with the community can help students not only have something else to add to their resume or college applications, but get involved in the community they grew up in.
Visiting a beach or city you’ve never seen before can be a standout moment by itself. Jump into a car and take a trip to even Lodi or Manteca and go to a restaurant you’ve never been to before or a little boutique selling clothes different from those at big-name stores in the mall.
It’s the responsibility of the students to do this, however. They have to be the ones to find a job they want to apply for, initiate social activities, find places for community service, and discover a place that is unfamiliar. Many of the people who said their summer was boring are the ones sitting and staring at a screen all summer long.
Instead of being the epitome of irony, be the one who takes action and does something meaningful. Let the focus of summer be “let’s go do something” rather than “what is there to do?”