How to Build a Summer You'll Enjoy
Written by: Safa Awed, 3rd Year Integrated Science specializing in Synthetic Biology
Photo by: Western Communications
Picture the scene: the sun is beating down on your face, as you lounge in your chair, the sand soft between your toes. The seagulls above you are singing as you stare at the large expanse of blue skies and blue water. This is summer.
Then you wake from your daydream, your head resting on the palm of your hands as you sit upright again to continue typing this story. That is me. I’m sitting here writing to you all from the bright, sunny (London, Ontario) on the tropical beach (Dark Horse Cafe) with the seagulls singing (soft ambient cafe music) and the soft sand on my feet (hard brown floor).
Okay, so yes, I’m not on vacation on a beach somewhere. And yes, I am writing this in between studying for my physiology class this summer. But even with my summer class, I can still make the most of my break, so I don’t feel jealous of those tropical beach vacations -well, not that jealous.
Every Western student's summer looks different. You could be reading this during that study break, or maybe you are working, interning, spending time at home, or you really are on a beach somewhere. Wherever you are tuning in from, you can easily strike a balance between getting things done and having fun. The best way to do this is to approach your summer days with a flexible roadmap of goals you hope to achieve. To help you design your summer plans, here are the tips that I picked up to make a rewarding and fun summer:
Tip #1: Tune Out the Noise and Reflect
The first step to making the most of your summer routine is to tailor it to you. Scrolling on LinkedIn or Instagram, you’ll get bombarded with your peers' jobs and summer vacations, and it's easy to feel like you are missing out. Those of you who have a job might want a vacation; those who are on vacation might want a job. It’s a never-ending loop. Which brings me to my first tip: tune out the noise.
It's important to take some time this summer to reflect on your experience and goals. With the hustle that is university life, summer is the time to finally take a second and think about the year you had. Think about the moments you were proud of, the skills you need to work on, and re-establish or rethink your academic and career goals. After my own reflections, I realized that learning about drug discovery in a biochem class and working as a pharmacist assistant sparked a new interest in physiology and pharmacology, so I plan to pursue a minor.
Tip #2: Set Your Goals
Now that you have done your reflections, it's time to think about the goals you want to set. These could be skills you hope to improve, or even making time for your hobbies. One of the skills I was lacking this school year was my consistency with eating healthier, especially during finals. I realized that I didn’t know many convenient meals to make. So the first goal I set for this summer was learning how to make nutritious meals. My second goal was making time for reading: with more time on my hands, I finally have a chance to catch up on some books I’ve been wanting to read.
Tip #3: Turning Goals into Habits - Lessons from Atomic Habits
As with setting any new goals, it can be hard to stick to them. However, as James Clear writes in his book Atomic Habits, “you do not rise to the level of your goal, you fall to the level of your system.” After reading this book, I have found that goal-setting has become less daunting. It really comes down to two big lessons: small habits make a big difference, and making your goals attractive makes them easier to stick.
When it came to implementing my healthy eating goal, I found that I’ve been making significant progress. And I did this by first focusing only on making one meal more nutritious: breakfast. When I had a slow morning, I would take some time to make an oatmeal bowl. That quickly changed to meal prepping a 5-minute overnight oat recipe every night. By keeping colourful berries and chocolate chips on hand, I was able to make the habit literally more "attractive" while making it taste good too.
Tip #4: Get the most out of your summer
Wherever you are and whatever your goals may be, the secret to a great summer is balancing intentional productivity and enjoyment. If you are like me and hitting the books until the end of the summer semester, don’t stay chained to your desk. Get creative and change up your routine by doing cafe crawls, studying at your local library, or even studying outdoors.
However, without rest days, productivity is meaningless, so don’t forget to also put the “break” in your “summer break”. Spend time with family and friends, make new memories, and enjoy the summer while it lasts. Prioritize your rest days so that when you come back to school, you are refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. Summer can look different for everyone, but what matters most is what you choose to do with it. As Phineas and Ferbreminds us, "The day is our canvas, Phineas. Let's paint it."
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