The Student News Site of Burlington High School

BHS Register

The Student News Site of Burlington High School

BHS Register

The Student News Site of Burlington High School

BHS Register

50 things to do this summer

50+things+to+do+this+summer

By Halle Newman

There’s one hundred and four days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it, so the annual problem of our generation is finding a good way to spend it.

Like maybe:

  1. Sleep. You deserve it. If you’re not sleeping past noon at least once a week, you’re doing it wrong.
  2. Collage. You can save the world by recycling those junk-mail magazines and make a beautiful work of art while you’re at at. Collaging is the most underrated art form of our time.
  3. Wear sunscreen. Skin cancer is not worth the Instagram tan.
  4. Buy some funky sunglasses and wear them around like you own the beach. You don’t need to spend forty dollars at Urban to be part of this ~quirky~ trend: just go to the kids section at Rite Aid and get some swanky shades and you’ll be ready to hit the sandy shores of Lake Champlain.
  5. Grow a little garden! Avoid the gross preservatives in all that processed junk food you eat by cheating the system and farming it up. Strap on some overalls and get to work.
  6. Re-organize your room. If the people on HGTV can do it, so can you.
  7. Try cooking something new. Maybe use ingredients from your garden.
  8. Watch these movies: Inception, Call Me By Your Name, The Parent Trap, Back to the Future, LadyBird, Blackkklansman, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Good Will Hunting, Finding Dory, The Sixth Sense and Mamma Mia (in no particular order).
  9. Get a job. Use those English class skills to write up a resume and get to work.
  10. Volunteer at a local senior home. Meet some people who are older and wiser than you. They’ll give you great life advice and tell you fantastic stories.
  11. See how many lemonade stands you can encounter all summer. Walk around with 50 cents at all times.
  12. Read the newspaper. That way, you’ll understand the beauty of journalism and you’ll want to join the BHS Register next year!
  13. Learn how to play an instrument using only Youtube tutorials.
  14. Learn how to do James Charles-style makeup until you’re ready to hit the runway.
  15. Look up “DIY” and do the first thing that comes up on Google.
  16. Give yourself a haircut. Be careful on this one. Cut slowly.
  17. Try a juice cleanse and see what happens. If it doesn’t actually keep you full and nutrientized, switch back to solid foods.
  18. Cut out gluten for a week and see what happens. Alternatively, eat only gluten for a week and see what happens.
  19. Get on the city bus and just see where it takes you. Make sure you have a way of getting home, though.
  20. Learn how to do a magic trick.
  21. Go camping with your friends or family in the rolling hills of Vermont.
  22. Go to City Market and try to buy a full meal with four dollars.
  23. Throw a surprise birthday party for a friend on a day that is not their birthday. This is a fun one. Speaking from experience. Feel free to add an unconventional party theme as well.
  24. Host a potluck for your block. You’ll get to know your neighbors and eat good food at the same time.
  25. Peoplewatch on Church Street.
  26. Go to a fancy store and try on fancy clothes. You can come back and buy them when you’re a millionaire off your music career.
  27. Start a music career so you can be a millionaire by calling local coffee shops and asking to perform. Every star gets their start somewhere. Plus, you know how to play an instrument now.
  28. Surprise your family with breakfast in bed. They’ll be so appreciative that they’ll stop nagging you to clean your room.
  29. Clean your room because at this point in the summer it’s probably gross and inhabitable.
  30. Wash your car and make it all shiny.
  31. Pull out a board game for old time’s sake.
  32. Play monopoly, but play it gambling style. Use candy, gum, change you find around the house or other miscellaneous items and put them in the free parking pile. The game is much more fun when items are at stake.
  33. Listen to Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz to see if they really line up.
  34. Make a fort in your living room and have a sleepover inside it with your friends.
  35. Make a summer scrapbook of all the fun adventures you have.
  36. Go on fun adventures.
  37. Hop in the car and go on a road trip with your friends. Montreal is a great one-day getaway and a great way to practice your French.
  38. Give yourself a spa day. You deserve it. Drink tea, do a face mask, lay in the sun.
  39. Go swimming before the water turns too acidic and drowns us all!
  40. Remind yourself that climate change is real and consider vegetarianism.
  41. Do some 2020 work. Who do you want to run this country?
  42. Play frisbee on the UVM green with your friends and see if anyone notices that you don’t go there.
  43. Go for a sunrise picnic with your friends. It’s truly a beautiful way to start a day.
  44. Go for a bike ride or a walk on the bike path. If you get bored, bring a visor and pretend to be a tourist so you can ask the actual tourists where things are.
  45. Make homemade ice cream by putting cream and cocoa powder in a ziploc bag inside another ziploc bag of ice and shake it until it’s thick.
  46. Make a joy jar. This is when you 1) find a mason jar 2) collage it 3) fill it with things from the summer that bring you joy. When the winter blues come around a few months later, you can bring back the sunshine simply by opening up your jar and reliving your awesome summer.
  47. Ask your parents to use their rollerblades (chances are if they grew up in the 80s, they have them) and learn how to use them.
  48. Write a really kind letter and leave it in a public space for someone to find.
  49. Live in the moment and take the summer one day at a time.
  50. Build a rocket, fight a mummy, climb up the Eiffel tower. Discover something that doesn’t exist, give a monkey a shower. Surf title waves, create nanobots, locate Frankenstein’s brain (it’s over here)! Find a dodo bird, paint a continent, or drive your sister insane (Phineas!).

As you can see, there’s a whole lot of stuff to do before school starts this fall!

Have a great summer!

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50 things to do this summer