Summer

Think about the summer... Think about all the time you have... I can think back to the countless hours of useless ESPN shows I watched during my summers in high school, it was usually some rerun of the World's Strongest Man. For some reason Magnus Van Magneson (or whatever his name was) was far more important than building relationships and possibly even learning something. I think I totaled some where near 0 books in all four of my high school summers combined. Now I worked, and I had summer missions trip for a week (so that was my excuse), but I had no desire to really better myself during the summer.

I had the mentality of learning is for the school year and summer is for forgetting. If I could go back now I would change that. I know very few high school students want to spend their whole summer reading and I don't think you should spend your whole summer reading either. Get outside, hang out with friends, go somewhere on vaction, do a summer camp, go on a missions trip, do something cool, but also try to set a goal to read at least one book. It could be on a topic in school you like, or leadership, or about faith. Second thing, try to invest in one relationship. Not just chasing after that cute boy or girl, but try to spend time with a friend or family member. Ask about their life, listen to them, see if you can help them with anything. Imagine what would happen at the end of 4 years of high school. You have four deep relationships, you have read 4 transformative books, and you were still able to forget most of the crap that was taught to you during the year. Sweet.