High school graduation means saying goodbye to teachers, tests, and 6:30 A.M. wakeup calls to make sure you get to homeroom on time. But while you say goodbye to some of the negatives of high school when you throw your cap in the air, you still have an entire summer of fun times with your friends before you each head off to your separate college campuses. Make the most of your time and create a few more memories by making a senior summer bucket list for you and your friends. Check out HC’s summer bucket list for a model, and feel free to add some of your own!
Plan a road trip. Gather a group of friends together and sit down to map out your route. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate, cross-country trip, but make sure you cover enough ground to see everything you want to see. Pack light, but remember to bring lots of snacks for the ride and, of course, a camera to document your trip. You’ll have tons of great photos to hang up in your dorm room come September, and lots of stories to tell your new friends.
Get your yearbook signed. It’s sometimes hard to get everyone to sign your yearbook before you graduate, so make it a goal to have everyone in your class write a note before you all head off to school. It will be a great way to make sure you see everyone one last time, and an easy way to get some of your memories in writing. If you ever get a little bit homesick at college, you can open your yearbook and reminisce.
Make a time capsule. This may be very Britney Spears circa Crossroads, but making a time capsule is a great way to preserve your memories of high school and have an excuse to get back together with old friends years down the line. Include photos of you and your friends, any souvenirs you’ve collected through outings with your friends, and a note about where you are now and what you hope things will be like ten years down the road. Amy, a senior at Michigan State University, made a time capsule with her group of friends at the end of high school, and plans to open it once all her friends get back home for graduation. “I literally have no idea what we put in it, but it’s going to be interesting to see what we wrote and what pictures we put in it and how much things have changed in four years,” she says.
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Plan a backyard barbecue for your family and friends. Gather everyone together on a hot and sunny day to celebrate your graduation and acceptance to college. Have everyone bring a dish – like pasta salad, vegetables and dip, or fruit – and grill burgers and hot dogs. “I hosted a barbeque in August before I left for freshman year, and we had so much fun that it actually turned into an all-night party,” says Kimberly, a sophomore at Tulane.
Rent a beach house. Pick a week and a group of friends and head to the beach. Sarah, a junior at Northeastern University, rented a beach house on Martha’s Vineyard with her friends, and says that while it was expensive, it was definitely worth it. “We ended up getting a smaller house and bringing up air mattresses to cut some cost, but we barely did any sleeping the whole week so it didn’t really matter,” she says. “Getting the beach house was the best decision I made before going to college because it really was the last hurrah for all of us.”
Make sure you visit each of your favorite spots in your hometown. Once you head off to college, you won’t have access to that great coffee shop downtown or that boutique you love to shop at. Make a list of every place you’re going to miss once freshman year begins, and make a point to visit each one. Have your friends tag along so you can enjoy their company, too!
Go camping. Even if you’re not an outdoorsy girl, rough it for a weekend at a campsite. Pack a tent, a sleeping bag, and lots of bug spray, and head out to the woods with your group of girls (and boys if you want!). Talia, a junior at Northeastern, says she did this with her friends before college, and even though she didn’t totally enjoy sleeping in a tent, she had a great time regardless. “It was my group of friends plus a group of guys that went together, so it was fun even though I came home covered in bug bites,” she says. “We actually ended up making a plan to do it every summer since, and we’ve kept the promise.”
Clean out your closet. Chances are, your style is going to change dramatically when you head to college, so get a head start and get rid of the things you’re probably not going to wear come September. Make sure to donate anything that you don’t want, and then you’ll have some room in your closet for new clothes that you buy for college.
Go to a summer concert. There are plenty of outdoor summer concerts and music festivals, so pick one that everyone will like and make a day of it. Some of the bigger ones like Lollapalooza may require some travel to get there, so if you don’t want to spend the extra money on a flight, search through Ticket Master to see who is coming to your area. Brittany, a senior at the University of New Hampshire, says she’s gone to Countryfest every year with her friends beginning the summer after senior year of high school. “It’s so fun, the concert starts early in the day, but it’s just a huge party outside the venue until about 6 when people actually go in,” she says. “I have tons of photos of my friends from high school from Countryfest every year, and I always talk to my college friends about it.”
Make a collage for your dorm room. Dorm rooms are white and plain, and the poster sale on campus only has so many posters that can turn your drab room into a homey place to live. Before you leave for school, print out all your favorite pictures of family and friends and put them together in a colorful collage for your dorm walls. “Making a collage of photos was the best thing I did for my dorm room because it made it more personal and made my dorm not look so much like a jail cell,” says Grace, a freshman at the University of Massachusetts.
Is there anything you really want to do before college starts? Let us know in the comments!