How to Effectively Spend Your Summer Break
With summer break in full swing, it’s clear to see the shift between the busy school year compared to 9-5 summer employment. Don’t get me wrong, working a 9-5 job is still busy, but unlike school, when you get home, you have no homework, projects or real commitments. You also have your weekends and evenings to yourself, which brought me to an interesting realization - I had way too much free time.
While it may be tempting to take this newly found free time to lay back and relax, I believe that summer break is a prime time to focus on personal and career development. Last school year, I felt like I barely had time to catch my breath, between classes, student groups and work, I constantly had a lot on my plate and was in a perpetual cycle of completing projects or tasks. I’m a very goal-oriented person so I thrived in the fast-paced environment, but when classes came to an end and I transitioned into working full-time, I no longer had projects and studying to keep me busy, so I was left wondering, what should I do during my downtime?
At first, I felt lost and unsure of what I could do to keep myself busy, but I quickly found that summer break gave me the opportunity to complete all the projects and learn the skills I never prioritized time for throughout the year.
The first and most notable project I’ve started this summer is the creation of my personal website. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but never found time for with the constant load of school work. The website has given me a strong sense of purpose and serves as an ongoing project to highlight and record any accomplishments I’ve had. My website is divided into 5 main sections: the home page, an “about me” portion, a blog, my portfolio, then my awards and achievements. I’ve been spending my summer focusing on content creation, meaning that the portfolio and blog sections are regularly being tweaked and updated.
The portfolio aspect has also been a great asset to share any creative projects I’ve completed, while the blog has been extremely helpful in documenting any ideas I have along with pushing me to continuously learn outside of school. In addition, it’s been a tool to maintain my writing skills.
On a more creative note, I have also been painting watercolour cards throughout the summer. While you may wonder how creating watercolour cards helps further personal and career development, I’ve found them to be my favourite way to spend my downtime. Painting has been proven to be very therapeutic and is a great way to spend evenings after work. In addition, I’m a huge advocate of giving cards to people. Ever since my childhood, my parents encouraged me to create handmade birthday, Christmas and thank you cards. Fortunately, the tradition of handmade cards has been instilled in me, so I love the feeling and process of creating and giving someone a personalized card. From a professional lens, it’s a great way to differentiate myself. With everything being online, including communication, receiving an individualized and handwritten note in person has become special. It’s a way for me to show my gratitude and for people to remember me. In addition, the watercolour design highlights my creative abilities to people who may not have seen that side of me.
A more obvious way to get ahead on your professional life is through workshops. Last weekend, I attended an “Excel Boot Camp” hosted by the Business Career Hub which taught me tips and tricks on how to navigate Excel. It’s a skill which I’ll undoubtedly need in my future career so I couldn’t have thought of a better time to learn the skills without the distraction of school work during the year. I found that I was more attentive and engaged than I ever would have been during the school semesters.
Summer is usually a time where students relax and indulge in some downtime. While I agree it’s important to take time for yourself, the break serves as an invaluable time to get ahead and push yourself to try something new. To my colleagues, I hope you find a project to develop over the summer to keep your mind engaged and to push yourself to try something you’ve always wanted to do.