Maybe it’s because I just wrapped up my first week of interning or because I’m in the city of Angels, but I truly believe in taking full advantage of the weekends. Los Angeles is filled with numerous places to see and things to do, just like anywhere else you are. All you have to do is be up for an adventure. That’s not to say every weekend has to be a jam-packed forty-eight hours of adventure, but it is to say that when an opportunity presents itself, we should take it.

The key is knowing what you want to accomplish and what makes you happy. If you have a simple-home project you’re working on, like re-painting your cabinets or re-designing your bathroom, do it over the weekend! Don’t put it off for a weekday when you come home tired from work or are swamped with errands, indulge in your project and take your time to make it great.

For those with a sense of wander-lust but are unable to get away for the weekend, you can find little adventures locally wherever you are. I went for an early morning run along the coast of Bolsa Chica beach, ate breakfast at a café I’ve never heard of before, and went to my neighborhood’s local farmers market and made dinner with the vegetables I bought there. This isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you think of ~adventure~ or ~travel~, it surely isn’t my first thought either. However, I found these small, casual trips are surprisingly eye-opening to the simple, wonderful places right under our noses.

And if you were really, really, really just trying to catch up on those hours of sleep you missed during the week, do that too. Your health is just as important as your happiness and quite frankly goes hand in hand. If your weekend goal was restoration ad relaxation, reward yourself to a nap and a day in bed watching Netflix- we all need those days.

I have personally done all of the above. Some days, I’m feeling really ambitious and have this need to re-decorate my room. Others I want to take a road trip up and down and back up the Pacific Coast Highway. And of course, other days I want to lay on my couch and watch endless episodes of football or bury myself in a Netflix series I’ve come to recently obsess over earlier this summer.

The point is- we only have two days out of the whole week to spend on ourselves. Where we aren’t obligated to be somewhere or get something done at a specific time. Unless, of course, you have a wedding to attend or a birthday party and whatnot. But like I said- whatever makes you happy, however you want to fill your weekend, spend the forty-eight hours of freedom you have doing what you want to do. Don’t let the weekend end and wake up Monday regretting not doing something you had all the time to do on Saturday and Sunday.