HOW to have fun – that, I can assure you, is one of the topmost things on most students’ minds during the holidays.
While I agree that school breaks are a good time to let our hair down, we must not go overboard with it.
The holidays are also a time to enhance ourselves in every way possible. Here are my top five suggestions.
1. Learn a new language
Gone are the days when learning a new language requires paying a substantial amount for face-to-face lessons, or flipping through a 300-page English-to-Spanish dictionary.
These days, there are so many people who teach for free on multiple online platforms.
All you have to do is spend about half an hour a day to watch some videos on the foreign language of your choice.
You can even listen to language podcasts while cleaning up your room or while making a trip to the convenience store.
Mastering a foreign language opens up plenty of opportunities such as furthering your studies abroad and expanding your social network.
2. Create a blog
For those of you who love pouring out your thoughts in words, this one’s for you.
If you need help getting started, there are numerous tutorials from experienced bloggers on the Internet for your reference.
There are many themes from which you can choose to focus on such as travel and food. In the long term, you can even earn an income just by blogging. How cool is that?
Through blogging, you can improve your writing skills and create your own online identity.
You can also develop essential information technology skills.
3. Improve your physical health
Holidays are the perfect time for you to finally get back in shape.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, most of us have been unable to lead an active lifestyle.
With the restrictions being relaxed, there is no excuse for you to skip your exercise routine.
Instead of sleeping in, wake up as early as 6am and go for a jog around your residential area.
If you prefer to exercise indoors, look up online workouts.
There are videos that can really help you to sweat it out even from your home.
Also, drink more plain water and cut down on fried food.
You can download an app to keep track of your diet plan, calorie intake and muscle gain.
4. Pick up a new skill
Some skills are actually fun to learn.
It can be anything from cooking to photography.
Who knows?
You might even develop a new hobby.
New skills can come in handy in the future and make you a holistic person.
If you can pick up just one or two skills by the end of your school break, that would be a much better use of your time than mindlessly surfing the Internet.
5. Create your own product (and maybe even sell it!)
The best part about this is that you can be your own boss.
Believe it or not, you can make and sell miscellaneous products right from your home such as lomo cards, notebooks, wrapping paper, bath bombs and acrylic merchandise.
Do some research on the best products to sell online and do not forget to test the market.
Try creating a product you can make in the comfort of your own home to maintain the longevity of your business.
Having your own product or business increases your perceived expertise, and is considered a skill which you can include in your resume. More importantly, it can give you an income.
Paradoxically, time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
So, spend your holidays wisely and work on personal development.
Choose an area of interest to focus on, so you don’t feel overwhelmed by the many suggestions.
And remember to balance your self-enhancement pursuit with fun so you can reap the rewards of both.