School and summer don't mix. In fact, thinking and summer don't really mix. Yet we don't want to return to school feeling like a lower-IQ version of Keanu Reeves.
How to strike a balance? I'm sure you've all had that feeling before: You bust out the first assignment of the new school year, you sit down and grab a pencil, you put that pencil to the paper and you... stare. Gaze. Daydream. Sniffle?
"Dude, how is this stuff even remotely difficult?" you say. "It was a piece of cake four months ago."
Yeah, then that whole summer thing got in the way. Funny how cruel overexposure to sunlight, fireworks, burnt hot dogs and fried Twinkies can be.
Four months off is enough time to forget a semester. Six months will erase a year. And as I found out last week, three years is enough to kill an entire foreign language.
But, alas, there are remedies to the annual summer slide. And these aren't your typical "read a book" remedies. In fact, some of them are challenges... read on.
My favorite and most successful remedy has been playing Chess. Played correctly, that game takes serious brainpower. You have to think quickly, analyze rapidly, block out distraction and employ some serious competitiveness.
Calculus was no problem that following September. Derivatives were no match for the difficulty of competitive Chess.
But in all seriousness, that kind of stuff helps. Sudoku helps. Crosswords help. I'm almost tempted to say Guitar Hero helps, but I'll abstain.
Watch your favorite movie with Spanish subtitles. Watch a re-run of your favorite childhood show. Or better yet, answer a bunch of questions on the Biology Forums answer board
Just do something. No one wants to experience the indescribable mental powers prowess of Keanu Reeves.
What do you do to avoid the summer brain drain? Can you beat 109 on expert? Yeah right. I need to see it to believe it.
