A Couple Ways To Beat Summer Boredom

Let's face it, no one knows what they're going to do during summer break, at least no one my age. I guess adults have jobs and other things like that to keep them busy. But seriously, barring getting a summer job, what  are we supposed to do for two and a half months?

There are near limitless things to keep juveniles, like myself, busy; if you're creative enough to find them that is. I'm a pretty creative guy and thanks to my brainstorming for this blog, I've come up with a somewhat comprehensive, somewhat thought-out list of things that will definitely help you to beat summer boredom. And by, 'definitely', I mean, 'hopefully'.

EPISODE 1, Summer Volunteering.     

    Now, the fact that I'm pitching volunteering here and just said that I don't believe in summer jobs may seem like a contradiction considering you actually get paid for jobs and volunteering is purely ... voluntary, but believe me, it's not. Contradictory that is. Volunteering is voluntary, that's kinda the point of doing it. The main reason volunteering is different from working is that volunteering is considerably cooler than working. Especially if you're volunteering for races. Like feet races, not car races. I don't know if you can volunteer for those.

For instance, last weekend I signed up as a volunteer for the Hospital Hill Run down by Crown Center. This particular race is one my brother's favorites for whatever reason, so that mean's I volunteer for it annually. I worked on the Thursday before the race handing out shirts. The coordinator for this race was pretty smart because they split up the packet pickup into three volunteer stations. This means that unlike most races, the workers didn't have to madly scramble to find bib numbers, shirts, and swag at the same time and randomly stuff it in a bag. For the most part, stress was kept to a minimum, but I was surprised by how busy the expo got at 2:00 in the afternoon. I was in charge of three different shirt sizes (Woman's Small, Men's Extra-Small, and Women's Extra-Small) so I kept pretty busy for the entire four hours I was there. Busy is good, busy is distracting.

This all may sound pretty boring on paper, but I assure you, it is fun, in a busy, kinda fulfilling way. If fun and fulfillment aren't enough incentive for you to participate, have no fear, swag of the most swaggy sort is always rewarded to us deserving volunteers.

While it depends on which race you volunteer for, normally you get a race shirt and sometimes free food. Free food is good, this should be a major selling point for any prospective volunteer. Getting a race shirt is good too, just make sure it looks the same as the runner's shirt, so people will think you ran the race. What they don't know doesn't hurt them.

Race volunteering only takes a day, so this is not the end of your summer journey. If you're willing, all kinds of other volunteering opportunities await you if you want to find them, or if you want to keep reading this long blog of mine to hear about them. Harvesters is another awesome way to help your community and have a great time, at the same time. Organizing events at Harvesters is encouraged. They host birthday parties at which your guests bring donations instead of gifts and instead of sitting around playing Xbox, you spend your time volunteering in their warehouse. Working with friends makes volunteering a lot more fun and comfortable in any situation, but even if you do it alone, you'll quickly find yourself making new friends, as you work together to meet worthwhile goals. Last year after that terrible tornado in Joplin, my family went down to volunteer over Memorial Day weekend.  While I wouldn't dare to call this a 'fun' experience, it was sobering. Helping some friends sort through their grandparent's collapsed house was one of the most authentic things I've ever done.  

Just to be clear, I'm not some super person, who's always helping grandmas across the street, or picking litter up off the side of the road. There's nothing wrong with having some relaxed fun during our summer breaks. I'm normally the first one to call it quits so I can get to chilling. Volunteering is just a great way to actually do something helpful in a season that's normally filled with little of substance. And who knows? You may even like it.

EPISODE 2 FORTHCOMING...

Josiah Bell, Teen Blogger