If you find yourself bored at home, it can be tempting to spend the day scrolling through Tik Tok or binge watching [insert your favorite celebrity’s name here] interviews. However, overuse of social media and television can have a significant negative effect on your mental health. Conversely, spending time focusing on a task that will contribute to your future success will inevitably improve your mental health.
Here are some ideas:
- Find a job, internship, or apprenticeship, preferably in an area where you would like to explore career opportunities. This can help you build a resume for college or go directly to paid employment–or even find valuable training to explore becoming an entrepreneur. Not to mention you can start saving money for a car, truck, home, or college.
Study for the SAT (if you are going into 11th or 12th grade) or the PSAT/NMSQT (if you are going into 9th, 10th, or 11th grade).
- Doing well on the PSAT/NMSQT will qualify you to be considered for a National Merit Scholarship. If you become a finalist for this scholarship, you will automatically be given a full ride at some colleges.
- Doing well on the SAT will increase your chances of being admitted to college and being awarded merit scholarship money. Not only will studying for these standardized tests improve your performance on the tests themselves, but it will also improve your reading, writing, and math skills overall, and this will be a huge asset to your success in all your high school classes.
Pursue Your Interests
- If you like creative writing, consider submitting your work to a competition. An example would be The Kenyon Review (https://kenyonreview.org/submit/) which has many competitions throughout the year for high school writers. If you don’t win a competition, remember that your work is still worth it! You can always share your work with family and friends for encouragement and suggestions for improvement.
- If you like a certain subject in school, see what you can do outside the classroom to increase your knowledge and skill set.
Example: If you enjoyed your intro to chemistry course, get an AP Chemistry review book or Organic Chemistry as a Second Language Book. Getting a head start on your potential majors in college will help you immensely!
- If you enjoyed taking a language course, consider working through the rest of your textbook on your own. Learning a language on your own can be very rewarding: it will improve your memorization skills and ability to overcome challenges independently.
- Remember YouTube is a great resource for learning how to do something and for finding inspiration for a project. Example: If you like to play an instrument, YouTube will probably have a tutorial for how to play your favorite song.
- If you like stories, find a book or movie or speech that grabs your attention! If you’re a history nerd, you might want to check out an autobiography or biopic. If you’re inspired by a public figure, see if they have written a book or delivered a speech or presentation that you can watch online.
- If you enjoy a certain sport, join a summer league!
If you get cut from your town’s summer team, keep practicing and see if there is a pick-up league near you.
Enjoy the Beautiful Weather
- Bike riding, rollerblading, walking, or running around your neighborhood can be good ways to get some exercise while enjoying the summer weather. Exercise is important not only for your physical health but also for your mental health; it causes “feel-good” hormones to be released in your brain.
- You can always do your work or read a book outside instead of inside!
Of course, your entire summer doesn’t need to be spent doing something productive. In fact, summer is the best time of the year to relax. Nevertheless, studying for the SAT/NMSQT and pursuing your interests while enjoying the beautiful weather are ways to avoid the mental health challenges that boredom can so easily bring.