During the summer, it can be a bummer when there are a bunch of new things you want to try and cross off your bucket list but your friends don’t have the same schedule as you. As much as you all want to link up and hang out, you just have to understand – that, hey, life gets busy – and respect each other’s grind and hope that sooner or later everyone’s calendars will clear up around the same time and there will be a grand possibility to make plans with one another. Fortunately, in the meantime, there are plenty of things you can enjoy doing on your own to keep yourself just as preoccupied. Just make sure you get an equal amount of the following things:
1. Binge-watch Netflix.
What would any extensive period of time off be without the classic Netflix selection galore at your disposal?
Yeah, truth is, you probably shouldn’t spend all your time indoors and should probably get some fresh air, but if you’re doing both to a decent extent, no one has to know about that guilty pleasure of a sitcom you have a double date with alongside Ben and Jerry’s on a Friday night.
I’m currently on Season 9 of Friends, which I started earlier this year but never had time to finish due to schoolwork and errands. Thanks to summer, though, I have what feels like all the time in the world to binge one of my favorite series and get caught up – and, inevitably – shortly move on to another one that I am likely to finish in the span of two weeks, which is perfectly okay, because it’s summer!
2. Learn a new skill/craft.
Whether it’s making your very first soufflé to beating a face for the gods, it’s worth learning how to do this summer. From cooking to make-up to anything that requires instructions, in this day and age, you better believe where there’s a will, there’s a way.
There are millions of resources at your beck and call, so there are literally no excuses whatsoever, not to mention YouTube is phenomenal for tutorials for any crowd and DIY videos. If there’s something you’ve been dying to learn how to do but just haven’t had the time to, now is the time. Take up photography.
Do your nails differently. Start a jewelry line. Cookbooks with every recipe and conventions for everything these days… there’s really nothing you can’t find or learn, so take the time to figure out how – the summer is yours.
3. Revisit an old skill/craft.
I’m taking time out of my summer this year to go back to things I used to love doing, like reading, writing, and drawing. These were my favorite pastimes growing up, so it’s only fair that I return to them years later while I’m doing a different type of growing up.
Ultimately, what I did as leisure pursuits are at the core of who I am and make up much of my identity today.
Without those, I’d be lost. I’ve been inspired since the start of spring to get back to the passions of mine that essentially shaped and defined me into the person I can say I embody now. I spent much of last summer in the library and I intend on doing that again this summer. I’ve started back up on my poetry and even considered working on short stories after a very long hiatus.
I’m not too sure who I would be if I didn’t have my quirks and fascinations to guide me in life, which is why it’s tremendously important to me to never lose sight of my roots. My creative side not only helped me channel and express my innermost thoughts, but it is the side I am indebted to for being responsible in catalyzing how sensitive and original I am.
I could never forget to always hone my craft, and for many, sometimes those skills become gifts and talents that are wholly a part of us, which is why your summer should include being the best version of you you can be doing the things you love doing to the best of your abilities.
4. Go exploring/adventuring.
A lot of people seem to devalue the worth of a solo date or frown upon it as lonerish and "lame," when really, throughout the years, you start to realize just how much less you like spending time with others and how much more you like spending time by yourself.
Going on adventures alone is one of the best things you can invest in all summer, especially if you’re kind of introverted. Maybe your personality type is the sort that needs some space after being with your relatives at the cookout all day, or prefers to have a beach day with one or two close friends instead of crashing the whole of Coney Island with an entire squad of people you don’t even know on a first-name basis.
Browse the Internet and do your research. Discover some lowkey spots that you and only you and no one else knows about. Drive out to someplace in the middle of nowhere and get lost there. Hop on a train and pick a random stop and make that your destination. Your friends might be busy, but that shouldn’t stop you from having some fun of your own this summer the adventurous way.
5. Reinvent yourself.
This is kind of the overarching theme here; these all tie in to weave together a cohesive notion of the idea of reinvention in one way or another.
But without the actual tools to do so, the act itself is impossible. In order to reinvent oneself, one needs courage and a sense of self-actualization. As we get older, those facets appear to get clouded and not as clear to us as they once were, or perhaps they never were quite fully realized.
Summer is a beautiful season and it should be used to celebrate life, energy, and character; we should be committing more of our time in the months of June, July, and August to making those profound realizations about who we are and employing them in our relationships and communications with others because they help us to become more self-aware and therefore more sure of ourselves and the rest of the world.
It’s a time for festivities and rejoice, but it can also be one for growth, renewal, reflection, and finding ourselves immensely empowered by the influence our existence has, and sometimes that’s best done independently in our down time on our own personal terms, which is why it’s not always so bad that your friends may not always have time for you because it reminds you to make sure you always have time for yourself and that no one gets in the way of that "me time."
It encourages you to put yourself first while also fostering an appreciation for others, but so much more differently than you were always used to. In turn, you learn to do things for yourself because no one’s got you like you’ve got you and it’s so much fun to pamper yourself and indulge yourself when you know you deserve it.
Because you’re deserving of all the love in the world, especially that which comes from the self. So go ahead, paint your room that color you’ve been meaning to since last winter. Chop off all your hair you’ve gotten sick and tired of maintaining. Get an entirely new wardrobe. Deactivate and disconnect from the overwhelming realm of social media. Dabble in some hobbies that interest you. Treat yourself, that’s how you have a good summer.
Summer 2017 is about rebellion, overcoming your biggest fears, entering the unknown, making your wildest dreams come true, and finding true happiness. And while these goals are suitable for the season, these are waves of change we should constantly be striving for and aspiring to reach. Like Henrik Edberg tells us in his list of summer tips for unwinding and recharging, we should all “think about how you can fit more what you love doing into not only your summer but the rest of your 2017.” Let this summer set the tone for all your endeavors this year and many more seasons to come.
