How To Make Full Use Of Your School Holidays

So your exams are over and the school holidays are here. What are you going to do?

It's a great time to sit back and relax after all the stress caused by your exams. While some of your friends have great plans for this June's school holidays, you may have made no plans at all. If so, we would like to recommend the following.

1. Relax And Recuperate!

For those of you who have worked very hard for your exams and are stressed out, it is high time for you to take time off your school studies.

Make use of your school holidays to calm your nerves and reduce your stress level. You will feel better and more full of drive and energy when school reopens.

So how to calm your nerves? Read our second suggestion below.

2. Take Up An Adventure!

For those of you who love adventures, this is a good time to take up an adventure. For example, you may join a school camp, an around-the-island bicycle ride or a treasure hunt. You may even visit an outer island or a foreign country.

Such adventures not only take your mind off your school work and reduce your mental stress, they also pump more excitement into your life. You will get to learn new skills such as setting up a camping tent, meet new friends or learn more about your classmates, and acquire new knowledge such as the lifestyle of an islander or a foreign citizen.

At the end of the adventure, you may even wish for more adventures!

3. Pursue Your Interests!

In the midst of studying, you may not have much time for your other interests, such as reading, singing, boat rowing, flower arrangement, or taking up a computer course.

Your school holidays will be a good time for you to pursue your interests. It will make you feel that your life is meaningful and rewarding, as well as pump more zest into your life.

For the time being, school work is out of your mind and your stress level will naturally go down.

4. Volunteer Your Time!

With a few weeks of school holidays, you will have plenty of time on your hands. Thus, it is a good time for you to look around you and realise that there are many people who are less fortunate than you. They include the elderly who are staying in homes for the aged, the handicapped, mentally retarded children, and orphans staying in orphanages.

You may wish to become a volunteer and offer your time to take part in some social work. This could include visiting homes for the aged and putting up some performances for them. It could also include collecting unwanted newspapers from residential areas for sale to raise funds for the needy.

By taking part in such volunteer work, you could contribute your time and effort towards helping the needy. It could turn out to be a most rewarding experience for you.

5. Catch Up With Your Family And Friends!

Every one of us is involved in our own personal affairs everyday. Amidst all this, we sometimes neglect the important people around us, including our family members and friends.

For example, while studying for your exams, you might not have spared enough time for your parents, brothers and sisters. You might be too preoccupied with your own studies that you did not realise that your family members might have needed you most at that time.

Your action may have even caused them hurt. Recall how your parents have taken great care of you all this while, and how your brothers and sisters have helped you in many ways too.

What you can do now is to try and catch up lost time with them. Show your care, concern and appreciation towards them. It may mean as little as helping with the housework while your parents are working. It may mean as easy as helping your brothers and sisters with their school projects. This will not only make your family more united, it will also make them realise that you also cherish them.

Remember, though, that you should not stop doing so once school reopens!

6. Clear Up Your Room!

Did you create a big mess of your rooms while preparing for your school exams? Did you throw your books all over the place, dump your belongings in all corners, and forget to clear your waste paper baskets? Then this is a good time to start clearing your room if you are guilty of the above.

A tidy and clean room is conducive to living and studying. It also shows how much you respect yourself and your family members. Your family members will greatly appreciate it if your room is neat and clean when they bring their friends home. So will your friends when they suddenly pay you a surprise visit!

7. Take Up A Vacation Job!

If you are a student in a secondary school, junior college or polytechnic, you can take up a vacation job during your school holidays. This will allow you to gain valuable working experience, including gaining new job skills, learning how to interact with people, and understanding how difficult it is for your parents to work and support you.

You may even wish to try a job similar to what you wish to do when you graduate. This will allow you to get a feel of how your future job may be like, and you can decide whether it is suitable for you or not.

Of course, the extra cash you will earn at the vacation job will also bring you satisfaction, because you have worked for it!

8. Catch Up On Your Studies!

Last but not least, if you have not worked hard enough in your previous semester, or are still lagging behind your classmates despite your hard work, you should make use of your school holidays to catch up with your school work.

Nobody said studying is easy, but if you are willing to spend more time on your studies, you will achieve good grades in time to come. Remember the golden rule, "Practice makes perfect!"