Some people take the summer to relax and do absolutely nothing, and some people use the summer as a time to grow and learn new things. As both of these options are great, I am going to be going over some fun and productive things you can focus your time on this summer.

Getting a job over the summer is a great idea. It will fill up some free time and you’ll learn to make money and work with people you wouldn’t normally surround yourself with. According to zippa.com, It is shown that only 35% of teens have jobs over the summer. Now, I'm not saying it is a bad thing that most teens don’t work, but I feel it might be necessary to start encouraging getting a job over the summer if you are a teen. Don’t get me wrong, getting a job as teen can be a lot more fun than it seems, especially if it’s an easy job.

I’ve always found it fun to create things in my free time. One thing I create is music. Now, I’m not saying you need to learn the piano and write a whole album, but maybe think about diving into some cool projects. This could include building a treehouse, making a birdhouse, or just learning anything new.

I think one of the most important things to do over the summer is hanging out with friends to keep your social life alive before you return to school in the fall. I spend a lot of time inside on my phone over the summer. This summer, want to challenge myself to only spend an hour on my phone everyday. Whenever you get the temptation to scroll through instagram, just go outside and do something. There's always something out there to keep you busy. You can also just use your phone to call up your friends and make plans to hangout with them!

Technically, this list could go on forever but I don't want to waste anymore time. I thought we could take a journey around the school and ask some fellow ThunderRidge students about their summer bucket lists. Evan Charkut (Grade 11) exclaimed, “I am so dang excited for summer it makes me quiver. The top thing on my bucket list is getting in great shape for cross country in the fall.” I am going to have to side with Evan on this one. Working out is a great way to spend your time. It reduces anxiety and you get totally shredded. Sterling Howarth (Grade 10) stated, “I can’t believe summer is just around the corner! So, I love the band AJR. I’m super excited to just drive around town with the windows rolled down cranking my favorite songs by AJR!” Not sure how I feel about the AJR, but listening to music with the windows rolled down sounds like quite a blast.