Summer Resolutions You Can Still Achieve

By Liselle

Four months is a lot of time to spend doing nothing, which is why more often than not college students find themselves with a lap full of summer resolutions. Now we’re in the last month of summer and some of us, no doubt, have given up on forgotten about those promises we made to ourselves, but it’s not too late to get back on the horse. Here’s a few ways you can still achieve those summer resolutions.

1. Getting a head-start on classes

Okay, maybe you were getting a little ahead of yourself when you bought all your textbooks early and vowed to have at least the first couple chapters read by the end of the summer. Now you have an unhappy stack of overpriced textbooks that are being used as a doorstop. Luckily, there’s still a way to get ahead of the game without even cracking open a textbook. Email the professors of the courses you’re taking and ask for last year’s syllabus. It’s easy for a prof to just attach the file to an email, and then you can use the syllabus to plan an effective study schedule so you’ll be prepared for classes even if you haven’t forced yourself through fifty pages of molecular biology.

2. Sculpting a rocking beach body

Those late nights studying for exams while chugging a red bull and grabbing fast food in-between study breaks has caught up with you, and you know it. After a month of grueling exercise, and turning your nose up at anything without a leafy green vegetable, you’re hungry, barely closer to your goal than before, and ready to give up. While you may not be able to suddenly sculpt ripped abs, you can still look good on the beach for the last bit of summer. Embrace the body you have, and focus on highlighting your best assets. And if you’re still worried about some newly adopted belly fat, then find a one-piece with ruching around the middle. The texture is cute and different, so it will make you stand out in the right way while keeping you comfortable.

3. Curling up with some books, for fun this time!

So, you’ve never been a big ‘reader’ per say, but this summer you decided to forgo magazines and see if there’s any merit to the ‘books are always better than book adaptations’ theory. Just when you’ve sat down with your book, a friend invites you to a BBQ and reading about boy wizard and his best mates in school falls on the back burner. You may not have time to read seven books, but you always have time for one. If you’ve picked a book series, delve into a stand-alone book by the same author. If you only get to read one book, take the time to learn a bit more about it—quality is better than quantity anyway. It’s not uncommon to find articles about author inspiration on the internet, and it can really enhance your perception of a novel when you know more about it than what you’ve read on the page.

4. Snagging some summer employment

We’ve all been there, you went from place to place with your resume and no one seemed to be hiring, or if they were hiring they weren’t hiring you. Sometimes even when there are a lot of openings, employers are reluctant to take on someone only available for the summer who also plans to take several week-long vacations. While you may have missed the chance to be work at that ice cream shop a block from your house, you can still make some cash before school starts. Often the last month of summer is host to small community carnivals and weekend street festivities which all require both staff and volunteers. Since these are short-term events they can take on short-term staff, and even working a few hours for a couple of days can give you enough cash for a last hurrah before school starts.3.

5. Starting something new

Maybe you told yourself that this summer you would finally start that street fashion blog, or maybe you vowed to learn enough Spanish to charm that guy in your “Español Intermedio” class who knows way too much Spanish to be taking the course. You started off strong, but somewhere between June ‘welcome back’ parties and July long weekend celebrations you strayed from your goals. The first step is to re-inspire yourself — maybe look at a few popular fashion blogs, or watch a Spanish movie. Then set aside an hour during the week when come hail storms or high winds, you will work on your goal. I find that when you really enjoy doing something you’ll find yourself slowly devoting extra time beyond the hour you set aside to work on it.

It’s pretty easy to get into a slump and find yourself laying on the couch watching Big Brother while the days fly by, but you always have time to get up and do something. During the school year sometimes even a month can seem like an eternity, and we’ve all still got a good chuck of eternity left to do things.