What to do this summer?

December 29, 2006 11:30 PM

I'm twenty years old, in college, and I feel like my life is standing still. Help me find something to do this summer that will change my life.

College is supposed to be life-changing (or so I've heard), but my isolated, rural college is not providing me with the real world experiences I wish it would. (Instead, it feels very much like boarding school, but with beer.) I'm originally from NYC, and it almost feels like I've regressed since I went away to school. My peers from home seem much older than I, and my personal development seems stagnant--like I'm the same person I was several years ago.

From the ages of nine to eighteen, I attended (and then worked at) a sleepaway camp during the summer, which were some of the best times of my life--I met people from all different cultures and countries, had wonderful shared experiences, and made many long-lasting friendships. After the summer ended, I always felt like a more mature person and came back to school in the fall with a renewed sense of self. Unfortunately (long story) I am no longer able to return to that particular camp, but that feeling at the end of the summer is what I am looking for. The past two summers I have spent living at home in the city, working at day camps. They have been vaguely rewarding in that I like working with kids, but overall profoundly disappointing and lonely because I was living alone (both parents spend the summer elsewhere) and I have no real group of friends at home.

I'd like to do something this summer that is meaningful in my own life and will (hopefully) jump-start some feelings of more independence and maturity. Preferably it will also be fun and help me make new friends. I'd also like to get out of NYC and see more of the world. I'm looking for either suggestions or personal experiences that you could share to inspire me. It doesn't need to pay well (or at all). Also, I only speak English and I don't know how to drive.

posted by cosmic osmo to grab bag (24 comments total)

Learning to drive would give you a huge boost; it gives you an independence that's necessary for so much else that I suspect that you're looking for. It's more than the ability to be somewhere else on your own timetable.

Oh yeah: learn to fly too. Not sure where your "rural" college is but my guess is that there will be a flying club nearby. See if you can find a local-ish gliding club as that's the cheapest way in and one of the purest forms of safe flight available. It will give you a whole new perspective, literally and figuratively. You'll meet a new and exciting bunch of people that are often highly sociable and involving.
posted by polyglot at 11:43 PM on December 29, 2006

If you can afford to do it (it's more the money you won't be making rather than the money expended if you manage your budget well) and I don't know how the roads are in the US, but try biking across the country (with a friend if possible). This past summer I spent a couple months biking across Canada and for me, it was intensely mentally and physically challenging experience and really just instilled this sense in me that anything was possible.
posted by perpetualstroll at 12:06 AM on December 30, 2006

Maybe you just need a new hobby. I am partial to photography, but anything that gets your mental and creative juices flowing can open up a whole new world to you. Plus there are often clubs where you can meet new people who share your interest.
posted by The Deej at 12:26 AM on December 30, 2006

I say volunteer at a hospital.
posted by subaruwrx at 12:27 AM on December 30, 2006

Would doing a study abroad during the summer session be feasable? Spending time abroad is always a horizon-opener, and certainly worth it. And you'll meet plenty of intelligent, sophisticated people as well, as well as inspiring you (hopefully, anyway) and giving you a new sense of direction.
posted by wandering steve at 12:30 AM on December 30, 2006

Work at a farm in the US. I worked at Potomac Vegetable Farms the summer after college. There are many more like it. The people are awesome, you accomplish something real, and you get to laugh at the poor slobs stuck in cars+concrete.
posted by scrim at 12:50 AM on December 30, 2006

Learning to drive is definitely on my to-do list, but right now is logistically complicated. It's possible I'll have a license by the summer, but I need to start planning now and don't want to bank on being able to drive if I can't already.

Going abroad is absolutely feasible and is the main general idea that's been floating around my head--as in, "I would love to spend the summer in England", but I'm not sure doing quite what. I think getting out of New York will help me escape from my life for a little bit, which I think I need. I do know that I want to avoid the pitfalls of the last two summers, where I felt little connection to my coworkers or the job I was doing, spent too much time alone and had no overall coherent "experience" of summer and as a result experienced no real personal growth. (I hope that makes sense.)
posted by cosmic osmo at 12:55 AM on December 30, 2006

where I felt little connection to my coworkers or the job I was doing, spent too much time alone and had no overall coherent "experience" of summer and as a result experienced no real personal growth. (I hope that makes sense.)
posted by cosmic osmo at 12:55 AM PST on December 30
[+]
[!]
ABSOLUTELY volunteer at a hospital. perhaps take some Medical Terminology or basic first aid classes and volunteer at a hospital. Meeting the doctors and nurses and everyone there was great for me. I developed many friendships and felt like I was helping save people's lives. Plus I got to see cool accidents and eat free every day.
posted by subaruwrx at 1:04 AM on December 30, 2006

Come down to New Orleans and volunteer to muck out houses of the elderly. There are quite a few youth groups you could hook up with.

Heaven knows we still need so much help down here.
posted by JujuB at 1:30 AM on December 30, 2006

I don't know if this would be too cliched for you, but have you considered doing some classic low-budget travel?

You know, the sort of thing where you book a ticket to some country and go there, with a backpack and a few sets of clothes, and bum around, staying in hostels and meeting new people, for a few months?

I think there's a reason that such trips have been a staple of young-adulthood for generations; getting out and seeing a little bit of the world, living out of only what you're carrying around with you, may give you some well-needed perspective.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:38 AM on December 30, 2006

I'm looking for either suggestions or personal experiences that you could share to inspire me.

I moved to Ghana for a summer after finding a volunteer position teaching high school politics, my college major, on idealist.org. When I got there, I found that I was a little isolated from the local community - living with an insanely affluent family in a huge gated mansion outside of the capital, commuting an hour each way everyday by local transport (which was fun at first and then became incredibly tiring), and pretty much being very cosseted.

At the end of the summer, though, I traveled to Togo and Senegal with a backpack, a little college French and a Lonely Planet and had a great old time, seeing thunderstorms evolve over the desert, watching the brightly painted fishing boats come in at dawn, all that traveler stuff. School paid for the whole trip - I wrote a grant to cover my expenses and submitted it to a campus committee that funds independent study and volunteer projects.

Now, I have to say that I have some mixed feelings about the experience: at the time, I saw my time there as selfless and altrusitic, and it certainly changed my life - I teach English in Indonesia now - but I also see my commitment as a relatively lightweight, low-impact-on-the-community experience which also padded my resume. If you're cool with that - I mostly am, now that I understand a little more about the developing world a little more - then I'd go that route: take something you love or know lots about and offer it to others.

meaningful in my own life
out of NYC
doesn't need to pay well
independence and maturity

I feel like JujuB's New Orleans suggestion is the best one so far, but I don't know about your limit on "summer" if you're looking for something truly different: could you take a semester off to volunteer for a longer period of time - maybe for some credit? - and then come back in the winter recharged? The lack of a car might be an issue, though.

Alternatively, learn a language in the foreign city of your choice - you say you only speak English, but is that any way to live your life in our polyglot republic? The amount you will learn by being immersed in the language from the get-go is probably exponentially beyond what you'd learn in class at Small Rural U, and if you pick a language like Spanish with many speakers in the United States, you'll be much more useful for volunteer positions later on, especially in areas (health care, housing, education) where immigrants are among those most served.
posted by mdonley at 2:48 AM on December 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Definitely spend some time abroad this summer. Visiting a different culture adds a lot to your understanding of the world and its people, and of yourself. It is eye-opening in ways you can't imagine until you try it. The suggestions for volunteering in the US sound good, but could be done in shorter stints -- you have the whole summer to really get to know somewhere different.

There are so many possibilities.... I would suggest you book an organised activity at the start of the summer somewhere interesting, and then stay on afterwards to wander around a bit. An educational course sounds good to me, and could enable you to find a friend or two to travel with, but some sort of activity holiday might also work well to just let you find out a bit about the new culture before being plunged right in to fend for yourself. Cambridge University International Summer School, white-water rafting on the Zambesi, cordon bleu cookery in France, horse-riding holidays in India or Argentina.... gosh, I envy you -- and must see about arranging something for myself!

Have you checked the Volunteer Abroad website and others like it? There are plenty of schemes where you pay for the volunteer experience, and can expect a bit of support in return -- probably more suitable for you than just turning up somewhere with a rucksack on your back. But don't commit too much time to organised stuff, leave yourself some touring time.

Have fun!
posted by Idcoytco at 7:35 AM on December 30, 2006

Just another vote for going abroad. I found myself in a very similar situation as you about a year ago, 20 years old, in college and feeling relatively unfulfilled and unhappy with my college experience and how it was unfolding. I just came back from a semester abroad and it opened and expanded me in ways I could have never imagined. I met amazing people, both American and otherwise, learned a lot of things about myself and my life as I knew it, and am looking forward to my next semester back at university more than I ever have.

My appreciation for my own life, my family, my friends and my college--that I, at some points a year ago, thought about leaving--grew immeasurably from my abroad experience. At the end of the semester, as I was packing to come home, I simultaneously was wishing I was staying for an entire year and itching to get home. If you can't go abroad for a semester, a summer program, if you really throw yourself into it, should provide a similar experience.

And if abroad doesn't work out for whatever reasons--and there are lots--travel and/or volunteer work in a foreign country or simply a foreign city work just as well. Good luck.
posted by cklennon at 8:06 AM on December 30, 2006

You might want to consider a NOLS or Outward Bound course.
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:40 AM on December 30, 2006

If you're worried about not meeing people, signing up for a summer class abroad could be a good way to go. It's a pretty bonding experience, and you usually end up meeting some locals too.

If you're backpacking around, hostels are a pretty great place to meet people.

And I definitely like the idea of volunteering abroad - even if you get stuck with a rich family in a poor area, if you're working with people, you should be able to build some good friendships.
posted by wandering steve at 8:43 AM on December 30, 2006

Get certified as an EMT. Spend a summer in an ambulance.

Or, more generally:

Make your life such that with each successive year, you are doing something completely incomprehensible to your last year's self.
posted by The White Hat at 9:12 AM on December 30, 2006

You need a Vision Quest and that begins from the inside. You are at a transitional period right now- you seek purpose. Not unusual. To find it you need to only know yourself. My advice... try yoga, meditation, take some psychological tests and find out what you are all about. Myer's Briggs is a pretty good one to start with. There's a few free ones online.

I don't think you are ready for travel aboard. Wait a year. You have some more growing up to do, people to meet, a license to get THEN places to go. I certainly don't recommend traveling anywhere by yourself, it is something that is better shared. You are going to change expontentially over the next ten years. What seems important now won't even be remembered a decade from today. As a test, think back to being ten; anything stand out that causes concern? Life works out as time goes by. Don't fret.
posted by bkeene12 at 9:41 AM on December 30, 2006

Bicycle across the USA. I did it this past summer, and it was a life-changing experience. I'm 40, and I wish I'd done it twenty years ago.

I rode Aventure Cycling's TransAmerica Trail, a route that has been in existence for 30 years.

If you are at all interested in doing something like this, you should check out the CrazyGuyOnABike site, which has tons of tour journals. I kept a journal there for my trip this summer, but here are some links to some other peoples', which are probably more interesting than mine:

Mike Riscica CoastToCoast!

CircumTrektion: TransAm 2006
posted by JeffL at 11:32 AM on December 30, 2006

Bike across the country and make the Burning Man arts festival your last stop (Burning Man alone will change your life). Fly back home just in time for the new semester, with more incredible stories than you could ever imagine.
posted by infinityjinx at 11:52 AM on December 30, 2006

Flip through Kevin Kelly's cool tools for some inspirations with regard to cheap travel, backpacking, cycling, etc. Absolutely get your driver's license, but don't feel you have to use it much. (If possible, learn to drive stickshift too. Just a skill you should have.)

Flip through the local adult-ed brochure. Take a sign language class. Learn to weld.

Call up a distant relative and arrange to stay with them for a week or two, just to be there. Take the bus or train. Work for cash while you're there. After two weeks, call another relative or friend, some distance away, and repeat.
posted by Myself at 12:03 PM on December 30, 2006

I never really traveled in college, and I regret it. You probably should. Especially if you're in an out-of-the-way place, learn to drive (or, just earn some money for busses/taxis) and hit the road. A friend of mine hitched from Florida to Oklahoma last summer, and had a blast. I suspect that was patently insane of her, but, you could probably use busses and etc. to approximate the same experience with somewhat less sketchiness.
posted by Alterscape at 5:33 PM on December 30, 2006

I'll nth the "travel" suggestion. You sound like you would really benefit from something like WWOOF (internationally or in the US), NOLS, and the like: something that is meaningful, social, fun, and involves at least some travel, but with enough structure to make sure you get what you are looking for.
posted by Forktine at 6:15 PM on December 30, 2006

I would recommend Tom Brown's Tracker School, which delves into wilderness survival, philosophy, nature and self-sufficiency.

After you've made fire with a bow drill, cleaned a fish, gone to the sweat lodge, made snares, built a debris hut, etc., you will feel like you can conquer anything.

But the most remarkable thing about this class is the awakening. I felt like I developed an awareness of a whole new world that I didn't even know existed. We get so caught up in the mundane details of everyday life that something like this really shakes things up for most people. They do actually warn you not to quit your job or do anything else drastic once you return to regular life.

You will have to work very hard at this class, though, it pretty much goes from 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. for a solid week. very little downtime. But you learn so much. And the firemaking thing is a cool trick to demonstrate for your friends. Flintknapping is also taught, and that's pretty cool as well.

I met people of all age groups while I was there. I think we had four or five countries represented as well. It was an incredible experience.
posted by Ostara at 8:52 PM on December 30, 2006

Two good and cheap/free options if you don't want to get away from where you are:

Take a bus (or train or plane) to Glacier Park Montana and find a job. I did it (and wrote the linked article) and am very glad for that summer.

-Sign up for an entire summer's worth of sessions volunteer for the Appalachian Trail Conference. I've done it for a few years now (on the Southern Crew - there are closer ones to you, but if you're up for taking a bus to SW Virginia, I know that you won't regret it. They are great folks and you'll have a good time).
It's free, food is covered and any gear you need they can supply. It's very satisfying work and I mean it when I say that the per capita coolness and goodness of the people who do trail crew is higher than any other group I've ever come across. Basically, it'll be free for the duration of your time there with only the expense of getting there and back.

Please email me with any questions you have that I could help with.
posted by gbinal at 7:59 PM on January 3, 2007