Although APs have yet to start and schoolwork seems to be at an all-time-high right now, summer is approaching us rapidly! In just one month (or a little less if you’re a senior), the raptor nest will disperse for around nine weeks of glorious summer. Most kids have activities in one of three categories: getting a job, accomplishing a goal, or participating in a summer program (some of these were really cool!) All fantastic ways to spend a summer. Read below to see what the raptor gang is up to! 

Jobs

• Publix seems to be a popular choice, with two freshmen telling me this lovely grocery store is where they will spend their summer. Due to hiring 14 year olds, this seems to be the logical path for many young teens. The earlier you get on the grind, the better! 
• Another popular job is lifeguarding, with both Warren Cohn and John Napolitano both wanting to pursue this job, albeit for very different reasons. To me, this is the ideal summer job. Baking in the sun all day, endless people watching, not to mention great pay… I am very jealous of this one as this is something I wanted to do last summer but due to my inability to pass their strength test I worked at the hospital instead. 
• Zuriel Nyamutsaka wants to work at Burlington this summer, and if I am honest I am struggling to find the appeal behind this one. Maybe he scored a manager position there or something because I looked it up and it pays like $9 per hour. Not bad for a first job though, hopefully he gets all the deals! 

Summer Programs

• Junior Emily Daniels hopes she will get a job at Clemson’s Energy Innovation Center. Additionally to this, she is founding her own STEM summer camp! Both of these are very impressive and will definitely look good on college applications. 
• Junior Rajane Mitchell is going to MIT this summer for a program in biology (MITES)! He will get to work with MIT professors and learn about biological computation and biochemistry as well as get college counseling. I think this may take the cake for coolest activity! 
• Sawyer Quertermous is working at the white house? While he didn’t specify what his job would be exactly, I’m picturing an immersive internship with Joe Biden. Very cool!  
• Junior Zachary Butler says he will be attending a leadership program at USC! He will go with a couple other magnet kids to learn about “leadership skills and more,” while also planning out events for next school year. As the next student body president, I’d imagine his summer will be very busy. 

Goals

I doubt that some of these goals were actually attainable, but nevertheless these were my favorite of the things people told me they wanted to do this summer. 

• Ninth-grader Christian tells me he wants to steal the moon! Perhaps he will follow in the footsteps of Gru and invent his own shrink-ray this summer. If he actually does this it’d be pretty impressive to put on a college application as the world’s next young engineer. 
• Zuriel also wants to go on a 10-man this summer! Although I think at that point he’d have more of a party on his hands, I think it’s pretty funny to visualize. If you need an activity suggestion, I recommend TopGolf or any other similar place. There’s an activity to distract from the inevitable awkwardness, along with plenty of workers to entertain with the hilarious interactions between the members of this rizz party.
• Adi Katan (and Noah Orza) want to work at a professional cuddling organization! Although I am not sure what this job entails, I commend their bravery as this does not seem like a job many would want to undertake. Maybe they’ll make good tips. They are also going to purchase a chihuahua and train it to be a guard dog. Chihuahuas get a lot of hate but honestly they are the only dog breed I like due to their small stature. They’re also easy to hold and cuddle with. Hey, I’m seeing a connection here!