THE HOLIDAY BUG

Don’t you just love holidays? O the joy of having weeks away from school, not getting up early and not having to do home work. The best part is the freedom from wicked seniors and an opportunity to restore lost vitality through your mother’s kitchen. Wait! Did I mention the part where you can play all day, watch TV any time you want and never remember where you left your school books? Yes, I just did.

Holidays are my best part of every year. I’m such a holiday freak that I almost want to ask my boss to allow me travel for summer holiday. Don’t look at me like that; you know it’s hard to grow up sometimes. 

What do you do during holiday, especially summer holiday which is usually the longest? Let me guess: sit down at home, watch television and movies, spend time on social networks and probably summer school. If you really look closely, you will realize you usually don’t do much during the holiday period. Do you know that you can use your holiday wisely to learn so many skills and gain knowledge and experience? What happened to getting a holiday job? I never had one but I wish I tried it, you know. If you can’t find somewhere to work during the holidays, you could also learn something new, like a new skill. Holidays are the perfect time to get mentoring.

The idea is, before every holiday season, plan what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. The first time I tried that was when I graduated from secondary school. I wrote a list of things I wanted to learn before I enter the university and the list was:

•     learn how to use the computer and the internet (c’mon it was back in the day)

•     learn more about using wise sayings and Shakespearean quotes (I used to wonder where some writers get all those quotes from)

•     learn to socialize with people especially boys (I went to an all girls school so I had to learn)

•     learn to read books (definitely not school books)

You can learn so much during the holidays; so much that the holidays will become so short for you. When I was in the university, my holiday goals were usually books (certainly not school books) that I had to finish but now, there are so many activities set up by various organizations and schools during holiday. I once heard of a culinary school for students, skill acquisition, tours, and so many other programs. The advantage a teenager has over adults is that many organizations will willingly open their doors for you to volunteer or intern with them than a University graduate who they know need a job. If you start interning during your holidays imagine how much experience you would have gained by the time you graduate from the University. Talk with your parents and make every holiday period useful. Boredom is the next worst sin ever for it is a breeding ground for bad things to grow. You know the saying, “the idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”

Culled from my soon to be published exciting book "The Chronic School Hater" 

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