How to avoid the summer slump

There are exactly three times a year when every student is overcome by a relentless torrent of drive and determination. While two of these occur at the dawns of September and the new year, the other is upon us—the beginning of summer vacation.

Summer is a time to begin anew and rid your personality of all the awful habits accumulated throughout a disgusting year of university living. Whether the goal is to return in September with the statuesque body of a god or goddess, or simply to find a way to keep your room clean for a full semester, I feel the need to provide you all with a variety of tips that will not only help you achieve your goals, but also aid you in becoming a better person.

While the summer months provide the unemployed and part-time workers the opportunity to engross themselves with countless hours of sleep, I find there tends to be very few achievements of merit after 2 a.m. The only thing worse than the wasted hours of the wee morning is the wasted hours of the late morning that pass by when night owls are sleeping in.

By keeping your internal clock in tune with natural light, you set yourself up for success in both the summer months and the upcoming school year. And come on, it’s summer—there’s lots of daylight.

The next thing that can be done to improve oneself through summer living is to schedule free time. Each September, the university attempts to help students schedule their lives by providing agendas—most of which end up in the trash. But it’s not like it’s difficult to find a way to schedule your time—basically all computers and phones have software to help you out.

Although scheduling is useful, it is also good to avoid becoming a robot, adhering to Asimov’s oft-forgotten fourth law of over scheduling.  Don’t avoid something fun because it gets in the way of your dorky brainstorming period that you scheduled at 9 p.m. on a Friday night. Schedules can be shifted—live a little.

This, in turn, brings me to my third and final tip—socialize. While it may seem like a good idea to fill your schedule with countless hours of work, it is often unwise to desert friends in pursuit of monetary gain. Realistically, you aren’t going to have anyone left to appreciate your golden beach bod in September if you spend your summer ignoring everyone you worked so hard to befriend during the school year.

Take some time off and arrange some hangout time in a big city, or even London. The fact that a couple people are bound to own a house in a relatively large city gives everyone a place to commune. I hear they may even have a couple clubs in that place o