What To Do The Summer After High School
Figuring out what to do after high school can be an anxiety-inducing topic. College and future and loans and jobs are enough to give anyone a headache. For information on your options after graduating, click here. Or if college might not be your thing, we got you covered too. But here we are going to talk about the fun stuff. What do you do the summer after high school graduation?
Table of Contents
Summer Spent Getting Ahead
You could spend your 3 months finding ways to put yourself ahead of the curve for when you start college, tech school, or a job.
Internship/Job
Lots of companies are more than willing to hire local high school grads for the summer. Take advantage of these opportunities. Use this time to make connections with people in business, and learn what interests you. Plus you can take the time to stack cash.
Passion Project
Colleges and employers are super impressed by projects taken from beginning to end purely for the joy of doing them. Proving you have the skill to create something is always going to be worth the effort. If you are passionate about something and the skills needed to do it can be related back to what you want to do in life, it could be well worth your time to spend your summer taking on an extensive project. Build a tiny house, create and market a blog, build an app, rebuild a car. The key here is to start and complete the project and document the whole thing.
Scholarships
Spend your summer filling out scholarship applications if college is where you are headed. The applications are usually long and tedious but even winning a couple can more than make up for it. Plus every bit that you make means less loans for future you to have to deal with. TIP: focus on local scholarships and little known ones. Giant ones like the coke scholarship have millions of applicants.
Declutter
It is not uncommon for kids to spend 4 years at college and move straight from college to their own place. You may not ever live long term with your parents again. The amount of junk in your room is more than you will be taking with you. Believe me, you don’t need to save every sports jersey ever. Time to do some spring cleaning. You will be glad of it later.
Summer Spent Living It Up
Freedom! You could spend your 3 months enjoying the downtime between big life phases.
Hit the Beach
It is the summer. Nothing better than sun and sand. Grab some friends, some sunblock, and make the trip. Enjoy the water. Enjoy the sun. Get a tan.
Road Trip
If you have the time and resources, there is nothing better than a road trip during the summer. See different parts of the country in a fairly cheap way. Get a little taste of freedom and a whole bunch of experiences in one trip.
Things to Keep in Mind
Stay Friend and Family Focused
No matter if you are partying all summer or trying to prep for what comes next, don’t forget the people that helped you get this far. A lot will change as you move into the next phase of your life. Make sure and spend some time during your summer hanging out with the people who are most important to you.
Don’t Miss Any Deadlines
The summer is a great time to relax and unwind and just forget all your worries. But don’t relax so much that you miss any deadlines that you have looming. Don’t miss registering for college classes or getting back to recruiters or anything else where a response is needed by a certain time.
Do Not Spend Money You Don’t Have
You should definitely have fun on your summer between high school and whatever you do next. You graduated, you deserve it! But do not go into debt to treat yourself. That is not smart and you will absolutely regret it. Only spend money that you can afford to spend.
TIP: This is a rule for life. Only spend money that you can afford to spend.
