With less than a week left of junior year, the thought of senior year is now looming. It will soon be a year of critical decisions, and I have never been more freaked out about my future. 

If you’re like me, you never really thought about college and a career path for the last two years. You’ve waited until the last possible minute to actually start thinking. You’ve always had an idea in mind, and you always thought about going to popular schools, but you never had a set idea.

Now, however, your vision of what college you were going to attend is slowly changing the more you look at schools. Your idea of what career you wanted has changed the more you hear about others experiences and what it’s actually like.

But now with senior year only 57 days away, the summer is filled with items to hopefully get you ready for the upcoming year.

Along with family vacations to the beach, concerts, and many lazy days spent in bed, you now have to squeeze in those college visits. I know almost every free week I have will be spent visiting these colleges in hopes of finding one that fits almost every requirement I have. Whether I’m in the car for an hour driving to a nearby campus or I’m driving to a different state, I will definitely be busy finding my home for the next four years.

Of course, some juniors still have to finish, or even start, their SATs and ACTs. Testing days are limited,  so it’s best to plan far in advance. There are some who are retaking the SAT for the third time and some who are taking the ACT the weekend after school ends. Don’t forget to study all those complicated pre-calc/trigonometry problems you slaved over the past year. You don’t want all those warm-up quizzes to go to waste, do you?

Additionally, summer college programs or internships are increasingly popular ways to continue learning over the summer months as well as boost your resume. A college summer program offers a taste of university life, with courses taught by professors and dormitories typically made available for overnight stay.  Likewise, internships offer a glimpse of the professional world and can be an invaluable experience before students commit to a college major and a career plan.

Now, I know this all sounds stressful — trust me, I was starting to freak out just writing this. But the most important thing to do this summer is to just enjoy the time you have left before the real world barges in. Don’t forget to make time for walks in the park with your dog, or a trip to the theater to see that movie with your best friend. There’s so much to do in so little time that we can forget to enjoy what little time we do have. So every once in a while after a week of visiting that college or taking that summer class, take a step back and enjoy your last summer of just being a kid.