For every school-going kid, the two-month summer vacation is certainly the most awaited time of the year. So why not make it worthwhile too?

Ironically, most of us have no idea how to spend this time other than scrolling our social media accounts and sleeping for hours and hours. And if not that, then we are asking mum and dad to make plans to take you out somewhere to spend the vacation.

But let me tell you, this period of two months is a golden time and you must make the most of it because all round the year we are too caught up with our studies to pay attention to anything else. You might be wondering, so what can I possibly do this vacation?

our studies to pay attention to anything else. You might be wondering, so what can I possibly do this vacation?

Well, there is definitely a lot you can do and here I am going to give you some suggestions that are applicable to all of us, no matter what age group we fall into, in order to make the most of this leisure time.

De-clutter

The reason why I suggest this is the foremost thing you should do is that by de-cluttering not only do we clean and organise physical spaces but our mental space as well. After a year’s frenzy, your room and study space, etc., must have become pretty disorganised.

For instance, a lot of printouts, rough work pages, or scraps that you probably are not going to use again are lying among the books. You must have noticed that the messier your room is, the messier your brain feels too. You feel frustrated even when you are free and with no work load.

This is all because the junk that lies all around leaves psychological effects on us. Putting yourself into this clutter everyday reduces your efficiency to do work.

So first of all, take some time to clean up and organise everything. While doing so you may also come across many misplaced things, such as a book or your stationery set.

Read

I can never emphasise enough on the power and importance of reading. When you hear the word ‘read’, do not automatically start to think about novels. There are many genres of books out there ranging from fiction to non-fiction to poetry to self-help, and each of it has its own charms.

Browse the internet or ask someone to recommend a good book to you. And even if this doesn’t ignite your interest in reading, you can go through magazines or general knowledge and trivia books and websites. Now you don’t even necessarily need to go out to purchase a book; you can read lots of them online for free. Reading is not only an excellent way to spend time, but it also allows your mind to grow.

Exercise

This word sounds boring to most of us these days, but it is becoming more and more important with every passing day with our unhealthy habits and the sedentary lifestyles we are spending.

Exercising is not confined to going to the gym or fitness club only; there are various other ways to exercise. Walking and stretching is one of them. Yoga, too, is highly effective. These are simple exercises that you can do at your home too. Just throw up an internet search and you will find hundreds of ways to exercise!

Remember, if your body is not fit and active, neither is your mind, hence there is nothing you can achieve. The reason for suggesting that you exercise is because vacation is the best time to start anything from scratch. When you go through any new routine regularly without being pressurised, you begin to start liking of it and as a result you keep it going.

Time for your hobby

All year round our busy study schedules do not permit us to give enough time to our hobbies. Now is the perfect time. What is it that you absolutely love? Is it sports, painting, writing, craft, gardening or something else?

Truly invest time in your hobby and do whatever it takes so that not only do you fully enjoy your time, but also become more skilful and prepared for the time to come. Eventually, you will find out that investing in what you love is perhaps the most rewarding thing you ever did.

Learn a new skill

Besides giving time to your hobbies, you should also find time to learn something new. Two months of holidays should be long enough for you to accomplish this. What is it that you are genuinely interested in and that you have all been curious to learn? There are many ways you can learn, and not all of them require investing money.

One of the easiest ways is to ask someone you know who already has the skills to teach you what you wish to learn. Ask them if they can invest some time in you. Other than that there are a number of summer programmes and summer camps offering a variety of courses, but since most of them are expensive, you should first ask your parents if they can afford it.

Perhaps the easiest and most convenient way that I find is through online courses. There are many websites offering free courses online on a wide range of subjects. There are also many articles and videos teaching many skills and are enough to get you started on your own. Since almost all of us today have internet access these days, this is one idea you should really consider.

Reflect

How many times in a day do we sit down in silence to reflect on ourselves and our day’s events? Hardly a few or not at all. This time of the year offers you a golden opportunity to reflect on the past year’s mistakes/blunders (if you realise you have done), and make improvements.

Don’t you wish you could start the academic year as a different and more positive person who is actually excited about making a new start? I am sure all of you do! So grab a diary, sit down in peace and reflect.

What changes do you want to make? What mistakes do you wish not to repeat? What do you hope to accomplish? Using these questions and those that come to your mind, you can reflect and feel more positive and peaceful.

Friends and family

Maintaining a good relationship with your relatives or with your friends is really hard these days. The world is advancing techonolgically at a very fast pace and in trying to move at this fast pace, we tend to leave friends and relatives behind.

It has now become so common phrase, “Sorry, couldn’t get time!” which will of course be not wrong, but one can meet up, party and get togather again in this long vacation. Don’t forget your old friends, your cousins, your grandparents — all of them have their own importance.

Serve

The more you give, the better you feel. This summer allow yourself to offer service to those around you. There are a number of institutions that offer volunteering programmes for students that you can be a part of and serve your community.

Other than that, you can lookout for opportunities around you and you will find many ranging from bigger to smaller ones. If there is nothing you can think of, perhaps you can make donations to charitable organisations from your pocket money, help someone in need or teach someone. Offering your services to those in need not only benefits them but you as well. It teaches you many qualities such as sacrifice, kindness and compassion among numerous other benefits.

As we all know, time once gone never comes back, and wasted time is a huge loss. Every other person in this world gets 24 hours every day and it is what you make out of this time that truly matters.

So make the most of your free time while you still can before it’s too late. Happy holidays!

Published in Dawn, Young World June 10th, 2017