Staying inside all summer actually isn’t the dream after all.

Summer’s almost here! Unfortunately, that does not mean sunshine and beaches because most of us are still in lockdown. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun! Here is what some of Bwog’s staffers are planning to do this summer, broken into a few simple categories. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find some inspiration as well!

Go outdoors/Be physical!

  • Workout!
  • Walk around in the woods so much
  • Maybe get a tan
  • Spend less time on the internet now that I won’t be required to use it daily
  • Flower farming
  • Be a camp counselor unless camp gets canceled
  • Run consistently again because I’ve gotten lazy and miss it
  • Force my brothers to play tennis with me
  • Work out a lot so I can fulfill my specific yet generic dreams of having really strong arms

Learn new things!/Work from home!

  • Learn Python
  • Phonebank?
  • Work remotely for Columbia libraries!
  • Learn Spanish
  • Get a job (hopefully)
  • Relearn piano (specifically chords because why the fuck didn’t my piano teachers teach me any sort of theory) and figure out how to do bar chords on the guitar.
  • Deep clean my room
  • Learn how to sew
  • Learn how to play the ukelele
  • Take online French classes
  • SAT tutoring, probably — need to make up for the job COVID cost me somehow
  • Mapping out the law school application process! I think I might push things back by a year because of this whole mess, but I might apply this fall and want to be prepared just in case.
  • Learn how to use the skateboard I can currently only ride across my basement
  • Work as a lifeguard at a local pool and if that gets canceled (like my previous plans did), then tutor for SATs or writing
  • Learn how to garden
  • (If all goes well and I don’t chicken out again) renew my permit and get my license

Be creative/Cook!

  • Sell my art
  • Write??
  • Try to bring back the creative spirit academic writing has sucked out of me
  • Write a Pulitzer prize-winning novel
  • Write letters and make zines
  • Learn how to draw people so I can write my comic about a non-binary glaciologist and their wife
  • Relearn how to paint with gouache
  • Lots of crafting!!! Embroidering, crocheting, jewelry making…maybe set up a Depop for it??
  • Learn the guitar??
  • Bake lots and lots
  • Make a cheesecake
  • I’m probably going to buy a new bass and get back into making music. This could just be my quarantine brain talking but I’m really hoping to start/join a band once things clear up. I haven’t done anything like that in five years and I miss it!
  • Write every day even if it’s shit! Maybe come out of the summer with a few nice personal essays?? Short stories?? We’ll see.
  • Fill up all the journals I accumulated over the years

Read/Watch/Listen!

  • Read the books my mom keeps pressuring me to read
  • Read all the books I just bought to feel something
  • Read every book on my “to read” list
  • Read a book about feminist economics
  • I have a list of 135 albums I’ve been meaning to listen to that I haven’t gotten to yet and I’m going to try to finish the entire thing by July.
  • Catching up on TV, by which I mean rewatching HBO series from the early 2000s for the fourth time
  • Read in my hammock in my backyard, literally one book after the other. I want! To read! For fun! Not study for finals!

Hang out friends and family!/Game!

  •  I wanna be better at organizing Zoom calls with long-distance friends (which now include my hometown friends, in the time of social distancing).
  • Set up our Wii again
  • Finally convince my dad to adopt a dog
  • Build a castle on the Sims

Image via Bwarchives