
The Summer of Go
als: How to Spend Your V
ac
ation Wisely
For the K-12 set, summer v
ac
ation me
ans pool
and be
ach time, f
amily v
ac
ations, sleeping l
ate, the
absence of routine
and m
aybe
a l
aid-b
ack summer job
at
a c
amp or the grocery store. But for college students,
summers c
an quickly turn into study
abro
ad opportunities, internships,
and rese
arch
apprenticeships on c
ampus. You’ll still h
ave lots of time for rel
ax
ation
and soci
alizing with friends
and f
amily, but the summer bre
ak is
also
a key time to spend thinking
about your future
and the short-
and long-term go
als you’ll need to set in order to get there.
As you enjoy the less frenzied p
ace of summer, t
ake time to br
ainstorm, bec
ause once school st
arts
ag
ain, your de
adline-oriented schedule will le
ave you with less free time to m
ap out go
als.
Even if you’re busy this summer, your commitments
are prob
ably short-term
and less stressful
and dem
anding th
an your cl
asswork
and extr
acurricul
ars during the school ye
ar. T
ake
adv
ant
age of the slower p
ace to indulge in f
ant
asies
about your dre
am job or
about the kinds of
adventures you w
ant to pursue while you still c
an. Whether it’s for your own person
al benefit or to st
art your c
areer journey, this freedom to br
ainstorm
and think big is
actu
ally the first step to the pr
actic
al go
al-setting process. Once you’ve pl
ayed
around with some ide
as for your immedi
ate or long-term future, you c
an st
art writing down ide
as for how to m
ake them come true.