Summer Vacation Offers Life Lessons

Article by Jason C. Steinle, author of Upload Experience:Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings

“Back to college sale!” “I hate those words,” says 19-year-old Tom. “It means that the fun is over and it’s time to get back to learning.”

Did you have similar thoughts? Did you try squeezing every last drop out of your summer?

Unfortunately as the line between being “in” and “out” of school becomes more pronounced so does the myth of learning.

Today as quarterlifers—people between 16-34—we have come to believe that true learning only occurs within the structured world of academics. We think, “I’ve got two months to play before I have to get serious about college and my future again.”

Here’s the mistake. Most experiential learning occurs during the months of summer vacation. Think about it. It’s the time in which we begin working, socializing and having our first taste of freedom.

The myth of learning struck me during a recent radio interview. My guest, Seth Godin, a consultant for Yahoo! and considered one of the leading marketers of our time, flatly told me he learned and developed his marketing skills back when he was a camp counselor.

“I learned how to do it in summer camp.” Godin told me. “At my summer camp I was the canoeing instructor. The way the system worked is that each instructor had to persuade campers to spend time doing their activity.

“When I took over the number of people who chose to canoe was close to zero.

“I really wanted to succeed at that job so I got good at standing in front of 250 people and saying things that sounded silly or that made a fool of myself.

“That’s what they wanted to hear and it worked. That’s where I learned marketing. Not at Stanford where I later earned a business degree.”

I bet if you’re honest with yourself you’d discover a similar experience in your past. Perhaps it was the responsibility you learned as a life guard, the customer skills you learned taking orders at McDonalds or the creativity you learned as a babysitter. Summer vacation is full of life lessons. These lessons give us valuable clues as to what careers and lifestyles will best fit us in the future.

As summer vacation wraps up here is a simple exercise you can do to become aware of the life lessons you learned over the past two months.

Write out five answers to the question, “What did I do this summer that I enjoyed doing and feel I did well?” After you have written out the answers look to see what similarities exist in the activities.

Did you enjoy activities that involved….

Learning new information
Teaching
Doing technical work
Socializing
Finding new solutions
Etc…

When you identify the reoccurring theme to activities you enjoyed doing this summer and previous summers it will make it easier to identify the career path that best fits you.

For more practical articles please visit http://www.quarterlifesolutions.com/