As the weather here in Valdosta has made it uncomfortably clear to me, summer break is close at hand. But before we rush off to fry our brains in every conceivable way, let me just point out that summer break is just that: a temporary leave-of-absence. You’re meant to come back after three months, rested and prepared to take on more hours and harder classes.
Unless, of course, you are graduating this semester. In which case, you have troubles that I dare not even have nightmares about (Good luck, suckers.)
This one is for the Blazers who will be returning next season. I know that summer vacation is meant for fun and avoiding everything above basic cognitive thinking, but this isn’t high school. In college, you are expected to jump right back into the academic mad house, armed and ready to put pen to paper or else you get the boot to butt. Professors won’t baby you for the first few weeks while you stumble over yourself in a lame attempt to readjust to school life. Well, maybe some will. However, if you believe that every one of your future professors will take into account your laziness when creating their syllabi, then you might have gotten too much sun already.
A problem with most students is that we tend to live only in the present. Three months might seem like a long time to take it easy, but those days can go by pretty quick. So let’s try to plan ahead.
Instead of burning all your old notes, why not take time during the summer and look over them. Read up on the future subjects you are taking, or go back over past topics you had trouble with and quiz yourselves. These aren’t practices you have to do every day, but a little effort might mean the difference between a strong start and early withdrawal.
For those students who struggle at the beginning of every semester, like myself; summer break is the best time for you to prepare. Take a moment to look back over this semester – while you still remember it clearly – and go over what went wrong. Then find ways you can address those problems. Perhaps your study sessions in front of the TV and an Xbox weren’t as effective as you might want to believe. Maybe studying alone was overwhelming and a trip to the Student Success Center might be in order. Regardless of what issues you experienced this semester, they can be dealt with long before you risk becoming another chaotic mess three months from now.
College is tough, but don’t make it harder on yourself by being careless. With the full-time student requirement going up to 15 hours, some Blazers might find a school year without the “drop-one-class” safety net a bit more intimidating then before. So unless you’re real comfortable working in fast food or scoring a big lawsuit in the near future, you might want to save and strengthen some of those brain cells for next year. It couldn’t hurt.