What To Do With Yourself Now That School Is Out

School’s out. Now what?

I have a few ideas.

1. Sleep

Not so much that you throw your body’s internal clock out of whack, of course, but GET. SOME. SLEEP. Most of us don’t get the amount of sleep we need to function properly during the school year. Now that you have fewer obligations and more time, make sure you’re getting the recommended 7-9 hours. Just because you don’t have school in the morning doesn’t mean you should stay up half the night on your phone!

2. Read

If you’re anything like me, your TBR grows by leaps and bounds during the semester despite your most valiant efforts to find free time in which to tame it. Once you’re free from the responsibility of staying on track with your assigned reading, head to the library or bookstore and get yourself a nice little stack of books. Then get to it! For best results, I recommend sitting outside, under a tree or on a porch swing.

3. Spend time with friends

Before everyone heads their separate ways – jobs, internships, vacations, summer school. Plan something that requires minimal effort. Go see a movie you’ve all been anticipating. Hang out in someone’s backyard and eat pizza. You get the idea. After the stress and intensity of finals, you don’t need to set up anything elaborate. You just need time together.

4. Get organized

There’s something so satisfying about sorting through all my textbooks, notebooks, loose papers, and other detritus from the semester and tossing/recycling/donating what I no longer need. It’s a tangible reminder that the school year is behind me now!

While you’re at it, you may as well clean out your backpack + desk drawers too!

5. Reflect on the past few months

As tests + papers are handed back and you find out your final grades, spend some time thinking about the semester/school year you’ve just completed: What worked? What didn’t? Did you make sure to balance taking care of yourself with your schoolwork? Would you benefit from a tutor next time around? Were any of your professors or TAs especially helpful? (Write them a thank-you note!)

Whether you journal about it is up to you, but I highly recommend taking some time to reflect on what went well in addition to what went poorly so you can figure out how to make the next semester your best one yet!

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I hope you had a wonderful semester but even if it wasn’t so good, I still have faith in you. There’s always next semester… and even if you graduated, there’s always more schooling and/or the rest of your life to try harder, do better, and – most importantly – feel better. You deserve a break, so enjoy your time off!

P.S. Need more ideas for stuff to do? Check out areistotle’s studyblr!