Summer break is finally here, and the school year flew by. So many memories will forever be cherished (even though half of them involved stress and sitting in the library until early morning). This vacation from school will definitely be relaxing, but there a few takeaways to bring into the next school year that should be carried on.

1. Explore. Don't stay on campus all the time. Try to venture out and get to know the community and the town/city. Do things you don't get to do at home. Try new hobbies to expand on your interests. Yes, focus on your studies, but also take time for yourself to get the most out of your college experience. Aside from exploring the community, explore the opportunities on campus. There's so many things your campus provides that you probably didn't even know about, and it could really change your perspective on what you want to take out of your college career and bring into your future career.
2. Socialize. This is an obvious one, but socializing to acquaintances and mutual friends doesn't get you out of your social bubble. Meet people with different interests and careers to broaden your spectrum of friends from college. Constantly talking to the same people can become a damaging habit throughout your years in college and professional life.
3. Self-care. Self-care is overlooked a lot, but the little things make the biggest difference when it comes to performance and well-being. Don't stress over every little thing. Don't try to control every single part of your life. Once something has happened, you must move on because it's something that's out of your control. If you hold on, your mental health can deteriorate drastically without you realizing. So, if you get a bad grade on a test, learn from it and move on. If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on. It's a simple philosophy with complicated actions.

These three items are just a few things to remember as we all continue our college and professional careers. They're all skills and habits that will help us with building relationships and feeling happy with our surroundings in the future.

The start of this begins with you. You have to be the person to step out of your norms and feel the discomforting feeling you may have when doing something different. The only way to get rid of the discomfort is to go through it and become comfortable in the difference.