I am about embark on a summer that, for the first time in four years, I have absolutely nothing pre-planned.

I may be a summer counselor for my church or crash my Netflix account by watching so many TV shows or go on a road trip/mountain hiking trip with my friends.

The last one is a little unlikely, but still, the point is that I have no summer leadership program to attend, no lessons to prepare for the SAT and no plans to go to a third world country to build a house.

At the close of my freshman year, I was thanking the private school gods for getting me through in one piece. And although the SAT was a distant two years away, I met with my tutor once every two or three weeks.

My friend and I somehow convinced our mothers to let us go to Fiji for a community service project. Much to our dismay, the service took place far away from the beach.

Yet this summer, I have nothing planned whatsoever. Surprisingly enough, this does not terrify me, but excites me.

This may be my last summer for a while where I don’t have to worry about earning money, finding internships, or even getting a full-time job.

Once I enter into college, I start out at the bottom again, trying to maintain a high GPA and participate in extraordinary summer activities so once I leave someone will actually hire me. This summer serves as the in-between period; not in high school anymore, yet not totally a college girl.

With all of this free time, I am hoping to focus more on what I am passionate about as opposed to what I feel like I need to do in order to get into college or get a decent job. Throughout my years at Hockaday, I have traded in being semi-active in many activities for being extremely active in only a handful.

Despite my original thoughts, colleges care more about how passionate you are in 2-3 activities, not how you attended one meeting of every club at Hockaday.

So this summer I plan to explore the things I already know I am interested in like theater, writing or babysitting kids (spread the word–I bring arts and crafts).

On the other hand, I could use this summer to explore areas that I have never considered before.

I have a strong inclination to apply to work at Smashing Times even though I have not set foot in that place since 3rd grade.

I am in the middle of desperately trying to get my parents to allow me to go backpacking with one of my friends in the mountains of Colorado. As a complete city girl, I could not tell you which way was north if my life depended on it, but this summer I could learn more about the outdoors and the cardinal directions!

I understand why many people find the upcoming summer completely terrifying. Most of us have had every minute planned out for the past 10 years.

The opportunity for greatness can be very intimidating, but I hope every girl takes advantage of this time. Whether to further your experience in a long-time passion or to discover a completely new obsession, this time is valuable. To quote F.U.N., “We are young,” and this summer I encourage my fellow seniors to make sure everyone knows just that.

-Sydney