The first few days of summer are filled with long hours of sleep and laziness. This free time can give people the opportunity to explore new hobbies and activities that they would not otherwise have time for.
“Explore something you think you might be interested in, whether that’s community service … or even teaching yourself something,” College Counselor Christine Grover said, “It’s a good time to explore your interests.”
Sports:
According to Tutornerds, playing sports especially in the summer helps with socialization, teamwork, nutrition, self esteem and confidence. Freshman Thomas Bonos has a passion for soccer and spends most of his summer practicing and honing his skills.
During the summer, he practices with his club, Orlando City twice each day, extending his practice time to 10 hours or more a week. One such tradeoff of this lifestyle is that he is incredibly busy.
Since he plays in MLS Next, a feeder system into the pro league, he knows that he must have the right mindset in order to succeed.
“If I’m unmotivated, I’ll still try to stay disciplined and just continue to keep playing, continue to keep working and just keep getting better at what I do,” Bonos said.
While playing sports during the summer has huge benefits such as becoming healthier, this commitment might not be for everyone because of the amount of time one must put in.
“My social life over the summer is pretty nonexistent,” Bonos said. “I will hang out with friends or [my family] but otherwise, [summer] is not social.”
Traveling:
According to travel guide Vacationer, 93 million Americans travel at least once during the summer. Eighth grader Reed McMillan takes at least five trips over the summer, traveling anywhere from Chicago to Europe. He usually stays in each location for a few weeks, giving him a chance to embrace the local cultures. He believes that traveling can provide an experience that other activities cannot.
“Traveling helps me learn new things,” McMillan said. “You get to see some of the best things in the world and it helps me bond with my family.”
His favorite experiences have been visiting Heddon Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in London and watching “The Mouse Trap,” a murder mystery play.
Instead of overburdening oneself with summer courses and sports, McMillan believes that summer is a time to enjoy and live in the moment, not overburden oneself.
“Summer is meant to be a break,” McMillan said. “It eases you up before you head into the fall and go to school.”
Grover agrees that taking time off during the summer is both mentally and physically healthy.
“I’ve had students that over program themselves that have just tried to do everything… and they hit that wall where they just can’t do it anymore or it’s stressful,” Grover said. “I don’t think it’s good for your mental health and therefore your physical health to be under stress.”
Summer Courses:
According to Forbes, children lose up to 40% of the academic gains they have made over the school year while on summer break. To combine these losses, or even sometimes to get ahead in coursework, some students participate in academic classes over the summer.
Last summer, eighth grader Ashwin Anand took geometry over the summer with Florida Virtual School so he could spend the school year taking more advanced classes.
“If I hadn’t taken geometry over the summer then I wouldn’t have been able to take all of the math courses that Trinity offers,” Anand said.
Geometry teacher Michael Hill, who teaches this course over the summer at Trinity, explains that the pace of his summer course is not meant for every student, as it can be very challenging to complete a new chapter each day.
“I’ve had kids who are ok students … but they struggle with the pace,” Hill said. “I could eat an entire pizza but if you tell me to do it in 40 minutes, that’s a whole different story…getting it done that quickly is tough.”
Unlike Hill’s course, the course Anand took was self paced, which he believed made it more doable.
“I was able to choose when to work and when not to work,” Anand said. “It allowed me to have a pretty relaxed summer, even with taking it, and honestly, my summer would have been pretty boring if I didn’t take it.”
This year, Anand will be taking Personal Fitness over the summer to create more space in his schedule as a freshman.
“There are several electives that I want to be able to take next year, and taking personal fitness during the main school year will take up a whole semester,” Anand said. “So having the opportunity to take it over the summer and clear up a spot in my schedule during the school year is a great opportunity.”
Despite the different activities that students do over the summer, the general consensus is that every student spends their summer productively no matter what activity one chooses to take part in.
“I think the biggest thing that people need to know is that they need to do what’s comfortable for them,” Anand said. “You shouldn’t take a summer course because your parents want to … you should take it because you feel that you need to and you want to.”
