Against the lazy summer

I don’t care how many finals I have left, how many papers I have to write, or how many things in my room I have left to pack up to put into my new house. Summer is here.

Sure, we still have what is (for some of us) the most stressful week of our college semesters.

But if you’re anything like me, you’re making lists of all the great things you’re going to do during break. You’re devising road trips you have no means of financially supporting. You’re starting to cut your jeans into jorts and your shirts into tanks.

OK, so maybe not everyone is like me, especially when it comes to planning. I have reason to believe that I make more lists than anyone else in the state of Indiana. I’ve always been more of a planner, a goal-seeker and a person who always needs direction.    

And you’re thinking, “Over the summer? Summer is for being lazy and waiting around until I get my internship.”

I am here to tell you that a lazy, meandering summer is one of the worst things you can hope for.

Devise a plan for your summer so that you have everything worked out. Keep yourself busy with a road trip, a cooking challenge, a sports team, a community project or a reading list.

Get some healthy exercise in there so you have something to do and stay in shape.    
If you just sit around and watch your recorded episodes of “Law and Order SVU” while waiting for your friends to call so you can go watch television at their house, then you have done something wrong.

Without plans and goals to keep you motivated, by the time you do have to go back to work, school, the real world or wherever you’re going, you’re going to be lazy as all kingdom come and not ready to jump back into work.

If you are setting yourself up for a not-so-fun summer (perhaps one with summer school and a job at a warehouse), then distracting yourself with productive things to do will bring attention away from the fact that this might not be the ideal summer for you. I commend you for taking responsibilities into your own hands.

So write up your workout plan for your beach bod. Start writing up that novel idea you had going. Keep “War & Peace” by your bedside table so you can finally finish it.
Make it your goal to empower the frightfully under-used exclamation point. Give yourself things to do! Stay productive. Make lists.

And please, for heaven’s sake, buy your Harry Potter tickets ahead of time.

­— ftirado@indiana.edu