Our 54 days of summer vacation amounts to 1296 hours not filled with classes, homework and tests.  As hard as you may try, you can not prevent school starting again, but you can make sure what you do this summer will be memorable and fun. Check out what to do and what not to do to make this summer count.

Do

Wear Sunscreen
Proper skin protection can prevent wrinkles, discolored spots, and even skin cancer. Find a sunscreen with the right SPF for you before you step out of the shade and into the sunlight. If you are seeking a “sunkissed glow”, try a self-tanner that does NOT involve a tanning bed or the sun’s harmful UV rays in order to keep your skin happy and healthy.

Use a Calendar or Planner
The difficulty of organizing events in your head may cause you to miss something fun. You can’t keep track of everyone’s schedule in your head. Having the dates of important summer events, such as a family vacation, laid out on a calendar will assist you to make plans with ease. Counting down the days until school starts allows for planning a time to back-to-school shop, do summer assignments or just have the necessary amount of time to brace yourself for another nine months of waiting for sweet summertime to return.

Find a Useful Hobby
Without clubs and extracurriculars going on, the extra free time can be used in a productive way. Cooking, writing or creating pieces of art serves as a productive and enjoyable use of your time.

Vacation
Even if you only take a short road trip, grab some pals and make it memorable. It can be economical if you find good deals. Rent a hybrid, save on gas. Plan a day trip to Austin, which is approximately 3 hours driving.

Summer Job
A summer job may seem boring to some, but if you can find one you enjoy, it provides a great opportunity to make friends, build your career and resume, get work experience, have fun and earn extra cash.

Don’t

Netflix Binge
It may sound perfect: uninterrupted time to watch all six seasons of Gossip Girl. But spending day after day watching the same TV screen really goes by fast. Go out and spend time with friends or family and make memories instead. Really anything that involves staring at a screen seems to go by very fast, so NOT scrolling through every Instagram or Twitter post on your feed would probably be the best choice.

Go to Six Flags
Unless you really, truly enjoy purchasing overpriced snacks and waiting in hour-long lines in a large, sweaty crowd while simultaneously being savagely burned by hot metal and the sun, this is probably a don’t. Save the $100 you would have spent on a season pass and buy something nice, like deodorant (which no one else at that theme park seems to know anything about).

Wear Speedos
Seriously, just don’t. Spare the eyes of everyone around you.

Ignore Your Family
Without the obligations of homework completion, summer grants the prime opportunity to get closer to your parents, siblings and maybe even cousins or grandparents.

Wear the Wrong Shoes
Many summer activities require a great deal of walking and/or sweating. Make sure your shoes do not cause blisters or get too sweaty.