I am so glad to be home for the summer! I enjoy school, and I love what I’m learning. But sometimes, honestly, I just need a little bit of a break.

That being said, you should (hopefully) know me well enough that you know I’m never really relaxing all that much. I feel like I’m constantly on the move and doing stuff. So while summer is a time of relaxation for me, I also have quite a few things I am wanting to do this summer.

One of the first things I am doing this summer is furthering my education. I am taking two classes, simply to be able to graduate on time. I am taking an Honors class and a History class, and I think it will be a good time. I like having breaks off school, but this is more important. They’re also both online too, so hopefully I should be able to carve out a day or two a week and get everything done that I need to. One of them is a five-week course, and the other one is a ten-week course. That being said, I should not have to worry about stressing out about multiple final projects because they theoretically should not overlap.

I would also like to get a job this summer. I work a couple jobs on campus, but I am not on campus right now. I’m not really too keen to work in food because I’ve heard nothing good about food industries, but I’m down for just about anything else. But hopefully I can earn some money and gain some experience.

A third thing is getting in shape and working on my body. I’ve kind of slacked off recently due to finals, and I need to get back into it. I want to do a lot to help myself, and I am doing that. I’m going to do a lot of stuff on my own, but I’ve also found a gym partner for at least one day a week. I’m super excited for it!

The biggest thing I want to do this summer is improve. This can come across in multiple areas. Whether it’s cooking, spending time with friends, or getting closer with my family, I want to improve. I always say this, but I don’t want to be stuck in the same place all the time. I want to be dynamic, constantly changing and improving. I know perfection is unrealistic, and that’s not what I’m aiming for. I just want progress in every area of my life.

I know this post is kind of different than what I usually write, but I have a point. I’m using summer as a time to grow because I have less distractions. I have felt myself grow a lot this past year. But that shouldn’t end just because the school year does. That’s my challenge and thought to you. Find time when you have less distractions to focus on your own self-improvement, whether that’s 30 minutes a day or 3 months. Don’t become static and stagnant in your life. As I mentioned earlier, my exercise habits decreased due to finals. But that did not mean that every other part of my life decreased too. I still took care of my physical, mental, and emotional health. That one aspect was the only thing that decreased for me. I don’t want it to decrease now that I’m in the summer.

I don’t have a specific goal of where I want to be by the end of the summer. I don’t want to weigh x pounds or be able to ride my bike for y miles. But I want to have made progress from the beginning of the summer. If I only see a friend once over the summer, I don’t think I will have met my goal. But I also don’t want to see that friend every single day because then I won’t have time to see anyone else. I want to improve in general over the summer, but I don’t have a specific mark to reach.

So what are your “Summer Plans”? In other words, what are things that you’re actively going to do to change and improve yourself? Is it something as small as limiting your soda or alcohol intake? Or is it something large like training for a marathon? What can you do to improve yourself in your set period of time?