Considering our final high school summer break is soon approaching, I’ve realized that I’ve still got quite a bit to do before I head off onto the next part of my life. While I’m still deciding where I want to go for college, I know that regardless of my final decision, I need to go somewhere where I can start living the life I have always wanted to but haven’t been able to throughout high school. That’s why I thought it would be beneficial for me to write about what I’m planning to do this upcoming summer break to develop good habits going into college.
First things first, I know for sure that I want to develop some college essential skills before I leave later in the fall. One of those skills being cooking just so that I can learn to be slightly more independent while simultaneously living a healthier lifestyle. I know that I want to fully master egg-based dishes like shakshuka, but first I need to work on getting more adjusted with cooking on the stove. Right now, when it comes to cooking, I’ve got the chopping fruits and vegetables part down (yet I’m still incredibly slow), but I don’t have much experience when it comes to actually putting all of the ingredients together. Pasta is another dish that I know I want to work on as well since there’s so much variety in the types of pasta you can cook and the types of sauces you can have it with. Based on what I’ve seen my mom do, I think I can replicate her pesto sauce, but I’m not yet fully confident on making my own alfredo sauce just yet. At some point, I also want to play around with different types of dough to see how to make certain types of bread and my own homemade pasta just to see what varieties I can come up with.
Another skill that I plan on further developing is in relation to my native language. I have always been interested in reconnecting with Gujarati and Hindi, particularly because earlier in my life I actually knew how to write in both. Now, I can speak Gujarati and understand a little bit of Hindi, but I’ve unfortunately forgotten how to read and write in both languages. I’m going to see if I can enroll in some class, but I know for sure that my culture is something that I take pride in so I’m definitely going to find a way if I can’t find anything online. I also want to try and learn more about the other cultures in India, apart from just the region of Gujarat. India has so many languages that have so many diverse peoples that even the food is completely different in each area. That makes me just want to get even better at cooking because then I can also explore the different dishes across India while learning how to make them myself.
From there, I know that I also want to work towards getting into better shape. Four years ago, I was at my peak because of swimming, but I’ve gradually declined since then considering that I quit after the pandemic hit. My goal is to start up my swimming routine all over again, but this time do it by myself instead of being on any official swim team and having a coach tell me what to do. I currently work as a lifeguard at Life Time, so I’m going to use that as a tool to further motivate myself to start swimming again this summer since I can find a way to convince myself to get in the water whenever I have a shift on the weekend.
With that being said, I also want to contribute to my physical wellness by getting better at basketball as well. The nice thing about that is that by playing basketball I also get to spend more time with some of my friends before we all part ways and head on off to college. Plus, with basketball comes the social aspect to our group where we can make plans to do other fun things together like go and watch movies for example. I know we have a Six Flags trip and a Chicago downtown trip still in the works as well, so that might be something I’ll be looking forward to later this summer break.
In all honesty though, for the first time in a long long time I feel like I can finally go out and enjoy my life and do what I want to do. The past few school years have been an absolute pain and the summers haven’t been any better because every single summer break of high school I’ve had to take at least one summer class, basically keeping me trapped in this loop of just constant stress. These past few weeks have been like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can now just go and learn the things I want to learn out of curiosity and not because I have to. I know that this break is going to be different than any I’ve had in the past so onward to summer I guess.
Hi, Rahil! Ever since spring break, I’ve felt so listless. It really hit this 4 day weekend when I felt like I should be productive with schoolwork, even when I had nothing to do. It’s kind of insane how I need to feel stressed or I won’t feel comfortable. But I’m also hoping that this stress will disappear once summer starts! And during this time, I also really want to hone some of my skills and start new ones. Cooking has also been one of my big ones. My mom always lectures me to start cooking so that I won’t have to order takeout when I live by myself. I think cooking needs a lot of experimentation to know what contents to add and what the combinations of those flavours are. I think it’s pretty neat that you’ve started to get some basic skills down. I also want to start learning my native language. It’s a bit tricky because I’m half Korean and half Chinese. I learned Chinese during my 4 years in high school, so I’m hoping to learn some elementary Korean in college or have some prior knowledge before then. I also wish to hit the gym or start doing my home workouts again. My body has been deteriorating due to stress and not eating enough because of school. So, hopefully this summer gets better. It seems like you have your summer all planned out! I wish you the best of luck!
Hi Rahil!
Whereas I spent my last semester relentlessly grinding away on college applications and schoolwork, I’m already feeling the strange effects of this semester’s workload deficit.
I can’t recall an instance in the past three years where I’ve had as much free time as I do now, and deciding what to do with all this new time is almost as difficult as tackling last semester’s busy schedule itself. Like you, I definitely want to get better at cooking. I can basically only make pasta right now (the most rudimentary version of pasta, meaning the boiled noodles combined with sauce from a can), but I want to learn how to stir fry a couple of dishes before I leave for college. I had my first taste of food from a college dining hall a couple of days ago, and while it wasn’t unpleasant, it couldn’t compare to a home cooked meal. I also didn’t notice any Chinese food offered at all, so learning to cook seems almost necessary if I want to stave off homesickness.
I’ve also started getting back in shape this semester, and like you, want to continue doing so into the summer. Now that the weather is warmer, I’m looking forward to returning to the streets for my daily bike rides, but another thing I’ve taken up recently is guided workout videos off Youtube – I do these workout videos almost nightly before bed now. Strangely enough, I was introduced to these videos during Mind and Body last year, when Mrs. Shumate would play them for our entire class to follow along. There’s something especially motivating about exercising alongside another person, even if that person is on a screen.
Rahil,
I really liked this idea for a blog post. This was something that I had been thinking of as recently as I just committed to a college. I think your first skill, cooking, is something that I need to work on as well. Eggs, I think that cooking them, I have mastered them fairly well. I would argue and say that all breakfast foods are those that I could check off in the list of mastery. Any type of egg, you name it, I can cook. But that is where my cooking skills draw a line. I have trouble cooking actual food, like meat and vegetables. If I were to become well acquainted with one meal or one dish, it would definitely have to be soup. I think that soup as a dish is very versatile. I think that understanding how to make one soup could apply to other types of soups as well. Understanding how long to cook some of the vegetables and understanding what to put in the soup for seasonings can be translated into other soups as well. Apart from cooking, I also agree with being able to keep track of my wellness. For me, it would more be along the lines of knowing how to treat myself when I am sick. Like knowing remedies for when I have headaches or when I feel under the weather that could be found in household ingredients. Overall, I enjoyed this topic a lot, I may now have to start looking into tips and tricks online!