Well, summer is here and it has been more than a month since finals.  I probably say this in every blog post, but again, time has surprised me!   When in school, summer seems to be this far-off abstraction of freedom, sunshine, and fun.  While that is generally the case, summer is an amazing opportunity to make a schedule and stick to it.  I’ve concerned myself mainly with a cause very important to me to occupy most of my days: voter registration.  In town, I am assigned to gas stations who sell more cigarettes and chips than gas.  The customers who roll up to make these purchases insist that either they have no time or that they’re felons.  I’m lucky if I get more than two an hour, but its worth it to know I’m enfranchising populations that don’t have the time nor the money to afford as loud a political voice as others.   To make money though, I’ve been revisiting all the yards I took care of in high school and have one project that required a lot of clean up.  Results are fun, but the sun isn’t.

Especially with a job though, summer is a great time to practice what works with your body and your mind when it comes to sleep, fun, and family, while you don’t have to worry about keeping with a syllabus or preparing for tests.  For me, I’ve tried to readjust to a normal person’s sleeping schedule, something more resembling what Ben Franklin recommended in Poor Richards Almanac “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Especially for outside, it’s best to do it earlier before the sun scars the arid high plains here along the Arkansas valley where temperatures can climb to more than 100 degrees this time.

Dorm life, as a I mentioned in an earlier post, follows no such advice.  Neither do my friends, many of whom weren’t in school at all over the last year.  This makes me think that staying up late might be built into our DNA at this age!  Maybe this is just a cop out though, as increasingly in my college-kid discussions about human nature and the like our genetics are cited much more often than not with the debit of our guilt.  It is a phenomenon that I am uncomfortable with, but perhaps its true.  Either way, I’ve been trying to figure humans out a great deal this summer with little success.  This brings me to the last point that I have to make about summer:  Use Your Mind!

I have been reading, participating in those college-kid discussions (about human nature and the like), but as the lazy river of summer leisurely passes by, hanging out with friends during my spare time becomes much more appealing than reading Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” and its also a whole lot more encouraging.  Regardless, keep yourself occupied with at least a few tasks that make your brain work.  Someone once likened it to a muscle that needs to be exercised every once in a while!!

Class of 2009…Class of 2013…Class of 2015…

After you say them enough, they all begin to roll off the tongue.  While these years may mean little to you, for me, they represent graduation years—high school, undergrad, Master’s…the list could continue for quite a while.  The years also symbolize change, something present in everyone’s life on the eve of a new year, particularly for current seniors.

My advice:

BE OPEN

BE PREPARED

BE EXCITED

Open to the many new experiences headed your way, some of which you may have never considered participating in.

Prepared for all that has yet to come and for the events you have yet to finish.  Before the college journey begins…finals, admission decisions, prom… (GRADUATION!)… all remain.

Excited because here you finally are—on the brink of a novel environment—closing the chapter of elementary, middle & high school…progressing to another stage of your life.

Be all of these things and ultimately, be ready for change.

So here I am, back in Arkansas for Christmas break.  I exchanged a 78^o climate for 37^o weather.  I’m back at my job at Steinmart, greeting customers and bagging purchases.  Once again, surrounded by family and familiar friends. But now it’s different.  I’m different.  Still myself but with subtle adjustments.  In fact, I realized that college may be a guide in becoming more “me”.

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly…”

–Henri Bergson

So, as you finish up senior year in the next few months and Fall 2010 becomes more of a present reality, keep who you are in mind, but also be willing to change…to mature…to progress…