Use The Summer Before College Wiselymyredkite.com /blog/use-the-summer-before-college-wisely/

The summer before college is the optimal time to get yourself ready forlife as a college student. We know how you can use this time wisely.

As you recuperate from your senior year of high school and look forward to yourfreshmen year of college, your mind is probably swirling with thoughts of classes, dorm-living and making new friends—all of the fun you will have at college.

Next year is going to be a blast, and you want to just relax in the sun until then. But doyourself a favor: as you soak up the rays, consider doing just three small, yet important,things this summer.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to College

First, keep your brain sharp for next year. When you show up for your first college class

in a few months, you don’t want to feel like you just jumped into a swimming pool filledwith ice cubes. Since you will be doing a lot of reading next year, why not keep yourmind college-ready by doing a little light reading in the summer before college? Noticethat I said “light reading.” I’m not saying that you should spend the entire summerreading War and Peace or Moby Dick. Nope. Just read at least one book.

Here are a few, fun ideas:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (crazy fun; then see theawesome movie with Mos Def and Zooey Deschanel)

Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis (a funny, biting look at Wall Street)

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle; thoughtful anti-establishment)

Either of the Steve Jobs biographies (I’m partial to Becoming Steve Jobs but youcan also try the first one, Steve Jobs)

Any mystery by Michael Connelly (arguably the best living crime writer; LincolnLawyer was made into a movie)

The World According to Garp by John Irving (sarcastic and sweet at the sametime; then see the movie starring Robin Williams)

Freakanomics by Levitt and Dubner (entertaining look at economics applied tosome bizarre topics; my favorite chapter is about how they detected cheating insumo wrestling)

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (the most famous road trip you never heard of)

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (for anybody thinking aboutbeing an entrepreneur; the chapter “The Struggle” is a must read)

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (for the English majors; you can thankme later)

Walkin’ Around Money

I’ve always liked the expression “walking around money.” For me, it conjures up theimage of a cheerful guy, headed out for the evening, with a wad of twenties in hispocket. Think Frank Sinatra. The Pope of Greenwich Village.

For aspiring freshmen, however, “walking around money” means having an adequateamount of spending money during the upcoming school year. I recommend that you geta game plan together for what kind of spending money you want to have next year. Do itnow.

Talk with your parents at the beginning of the summer before college, not at the lastminute. You don’t want to find yourself discovering in mid-August that the only thing inyour pocket will be your keys. If you realize now that you aren’t going to have enoughspending money next year, you still have plenty of time to get that organized.

Be Cool But Care

College preparation is fun. New clothes. Maybe a new laptop. Depending on whetheryou are living on or off campus, maybe some new furniture.

But how are you preparing your…inner self? Are you poised to mature? Or coast?

Will you be the guy known for parties? Or the guy who noticed the quiet kid down thehallway, and invited him along on a Saturday night? Will you be the woman best knownfor perfect hair at 8 am classes? Or will you be the woman who spent an hour a week atthe local woman’s shelter and helped somebody get back on her feet?

Trust me on this one: your character will determine your success in life far more thanwhich college you attend. Be the quiet hero or heroine of your dorm. Say a nice word tothe cleaning crew or security guard. Help somebody who’s struggling in calculus. Holdthe door open for somebody running late to class. Each day do one nice thing forothers.

To quote a line from another Thomas Pynchon book, “be cool but care.”