This is another of my articles for teens. This one appeared in the Kairos magazine, April 2011 issue (which is not available for download yet).
Summer Holidays – Ten tips to have a great time!
Dr. Shajul George.
Holiday Movie Marathon
Have a holiday movie marathon with your friends. Collect some really good movies you have been dying to watch, make some snacks for everybody. Call all your friends and have a great time. This way you’ll get some out of school time to connect with friends.
You can even combine it (or host on another day
) an evening of some music and dance. A contest can also be planned – housie being a popular choice.
Start a summer project
Start a project that you can complete within one or two weeks. It may be sewing a designer bag for yourself or creating a zine (old style or as a blog online).
Tone up those muscles
A holiday is a good time to do some structured exercise regularly. Some jogging, some walking around can be mixed with muscle building exercises – basically anything besides sleeping or hanging around the house. By the time the vacation is over, you’ll feel healthy and invigorated!
Make your room your personal paradise
First of all, turn up the music (tell your family beforehand). Take a photograph of your room before you start. Then plan on all the changes that you want in your room. Maybe, you can paint a portrait for yourself. Then clean up the room and make the changes you planned. Plan your major changes with your parents. You can plan some accessories like pictures, pin-board, bean bag cushion, study lamp, etc. and arrange them to your liking.
Meditate and pray
A vacation may be a good time to recharge your spiritual batteries. Meditation can give you deeper understanding of your inner self and your goals. You may plan to attend retreats, now that there are many retreats specifically aimed at young people.
Join a hobby class
Hobby classes in summer is a great way to have fun and learn something as you go. It may be computer classes (photoshop, animation, office etc.), cooking classes, martial arts classes are popular.
Learn a new skill
Make use of the holidays. Swimming is a popular summer-time sport. It is good to know swimming nowadays, and swimming coaching camps spring up during the summer vacation. Other popular sports to learn are skating, horse riding etc.
Baking/Cooking
Bake your own cake! Do the topping yourself. It is not that hard. Where do you get the recipe? There are lots of online recipe sites nowadays. Many have a rating system, hence the recipe will have been tried out and rated by other users, so you can’t go wrong! Home-made chocolate also tastes great and is easy to make.
Read
If you like reading, a vacation is the best time to catch up on reading non-school books. Old time fiction favorites like Hardy boys, Nancy Drew are still available in libraries, or you may graduate to something more mature. There are a lot of great fiction and non-fiction must read books, but I am not listing them here for lack of space.
Reconnect with your family
As you have much more time now, it would be rewarding to spend some quality time with your family. Have meals together, have a family picnic and recharge yourself. Also a great time to visit not-so-near relatives and strengthen your family bonds. If you have cousins of your age, invite them over, or plan a vacation with them. Hope you’ll have a great holiday!
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