Bucket lists can get really unrealistic. Sure, everyone would love to travel out of the country and do everything they can in a span of time. Sometimes you have to realize there is only so much you can do in one summer and if you're a college student on a budget, that list gets even shorter. Here are 10 things you can do within a summer that are totally ideal.
1. Go to your local amusement park/county fair.
Everyone deserves to have a day full of thrilling rides and unhealthy fair food. Amusement parks are normally open every day in the summer, giving you plenty of opportunities during break to go have some fun while fairs only come around for a week or so. The beauty of county fairs is that you only have a few days to go, and you just about get to see all of your friends at the same place.
2. Take a hike.
Get out and enjoy the wilderness. This can be a group event, or a solo event (although you should make sure to tell someone where you're going.) There are so many things you can find out about yourself on a hike. It may be something as simple as how much you love nature, or figuring out just how much you can push yourself to finally make it to the top. There is almost nothing more rewarding than the beautiful view once you reach the peak.
3. Go on a road trip.
Road trips don't always have to be some week long extravaganza across the country. All you need is a car, a friend, and the open road. There are so many ways to go about a road trip. You can try and hit as many tourist stops as you can, pick an object and visit all of the ones near you, or just get in the car and see where the road takes you.
4. Have a bonfire/campfire at least once a week.
Fires aren't that hard to make. Soon enough you get a system down and you're getting fires started in a few minutes, already ready for s'mores. This makes for quality time spent with friends. By talking, laughing, and maybe even singing around the fire, you're building a bond that is going to last forever.
5. Go to a drive in movie.
Drive in movies can be hard to find if you don't know where to go, but once you do, it can be the best experience of your life. A movie theater is a classic, but they can be odd temperatures, crowded, and even smell weird. Going to a drive in, you know exactly how to control the temperature, capacity, and temperatures of your car. For a bonus tip that works well for dates: find a spot to watch a drive in movie from a distance and watch a film you've never seen. Talk back and forth, making up the lines as you watch. It will definitely be an entertaining moment.
6. Give something up to better yourself.
People can have many different aspects to this. Some people will try to eat healthy, or cut some of the most unhealthiest foods out of their diet. Others will stop wearing makeup and using heat on their hair to prevent further damage. A few may even go as extreme to cut toxic people out of their lives and start fresh for the warm season.
7. Go to a concert.
Concerts can be very expensive, but also very cheap. You can finally treat yourself to front row tickets of your favorite band, or find cheap lawn tickets to a band you don't know that well. Either way, it is an experience everyone is bound to love. It's easy to make new friends over your shared interest in the music you're listening to and make a deeper connection with old friends that just came along for the ride.
8. Spend a day on the lake, or tubing down the river.
One of the most relaxing things you can do is spend a day out on the water, and there are so many ways you can do it. You can take a boat out into the middle of a lake and drift for hours. You can float down a river in a tube, clutching onto your friends as you hit some rapids. Or you can just spend all day swimming until you think your pruned fingers and toes are never going to go away.
9. Go to a baseball game.
You can buy tickets to go see professionals whack a ball and run around the bases, or you can go watch some little kids barely hit a ball off a tee and wobble around the bases. Both are going to be fun, but you're definitely going to spend more money on one end of the spectrum.
10. Get a job and save money.
One thing most college kids dread doing, yet know they need to do is get a job. You may have a summer job that you're keeping from high school, or you may start fresh at a new place. If you're anything like me, then you like to spend, but it gets hard to do that when you don't have any money left. Getting a job will teach you so many life lessons that you can take into your adult life, and you will even get to spend a little bit more than nothing.
