2nd June, Sunday - The night before I start "Summer 2013"

Between now and September I am free from university for the summer and this summer will be different to the rest in the sense of I will achieve things and I wont just waste my time sitting around the house doing practically nothing and letting all the stuff I've learnt from 2nd year leaving my brain and allowing cobwebs to form in the space between my ears.

So, this year I have made a list of some of the things I want to do over the summer, or odd jobs I've either been asked or volunteered to do by family members, and others are a little more close to home with trying to help people and learning/re-learning things.

So here is my list of things I want/have to do over the summer.  I'd be really interested to hear if you guys have any plans for over the summer.

The Summer List

1. Lose weight - I'm not sure how much I want to lose yet, but I am going to be exercising more, eating better and eating less.
2. Help my Nan clean and clear her house - I'd love to help my Nan clear a few things from her house so that she has more space to use for things she really wants, and also she has things in her kitchen cupboards that she can't reach so I'm going to go and clear things out and sort it out so she can get to things easier.
3. Paint fences (front and back) - My parents have asked me to do this because they are trying to make their garden look nicer, and I can paint the fences to help them without destroying the garden in the process.
4. Read up from year 1 & 2 of university - Every summer that I've ever had, I have never really remembered anything I've learn in the last year, not that I feel I've learnt much, so this year, I am going to revise and learn things from the course, maybe even get a head start on next years' stuff.
5. Read "Josh and Me" - This is a fantastic book by this amazing man in America, who is so full of life and he's done so much.  I first watched him broadcast on YouNow and he's actually awesome!  Check him out here.
6. Learn a new skill - I'm not sure what this is going to be yet, but I will try a few different things and find something that I can stick to.
7. Read and know random information which is interesting - If you've ever seen the Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson film " The Bucket List" then you'll probably understand what I mean.  Morgan Freeman's character knows all this interesting stuff which is so random but it's amazing how these people will have something to talk about or tell you about, if you have nothing else to talk about.
8. Watch the news at least twice a week - This is something I very rarely do, especially when I'm at university, but I hate feeling isolated from the rest of the UK let alone the world.  I come home and I watch it a little more but still not as much as I should hence the reason for this item.
9. Help someone in need - I am very against giving money to someone who is on the street begging for you to give them some change.  Firstly because I believe the saying "give a man a fish, he will be full until morning; but teach a man to fish, and he will never be hungry again" and secondly because I don't know what that money is being spent on by the person I'm giving it to.  I don't want to be giving them money for them to spend on drugs.
10. Clear out my stuff and give to charity - I love going into the local charity shop because I would like to think that the money I'm spending is actually going to help people.  What I have never really done properly is given to charity.  I've always been asked by my Mum if there was anything I wanted to go out into the charity bag that comes round every so often.
11. Take time each day for reflection - This could be anything from the day, to how I feel, to reflecting on life in general.  I'm not sure how well I'll do on this but we'll see how it goes.
12. Take the time to look at something beautiful - If I can't find something beautiful then I want to look at something that may not seem beautiful but look at it from a different perspective to find the beauty within.
13. Take a picture every day - You know how some people take a picture every day for 3 years or 5 years, I want to see how much I change over the space of a summer and see if I am actually losing weight and if it is noticeable.
14. Polish the car - This is something my dad wants me to do, he's been nice enough to buy the polish for me (really expensive) so I might as well just spend about an hour a day waxing a panel of the car, letting it dry and then polishing it off.  It makes the car I drive look nice as well as making my Dad happy.
15. Live day by day!

I know some of those may have been pretty boring but it isn't a list that I will be keeping for very long.  It's literally for 3 months over the summer.  Throughout the summer, I will be sharing my progress in weight loss and the rest of the items written above.  I'm hoping for fantastic weather, so I can complete some of my items.  

Good luck with getting results! Have a fantastic summer and let me know if there's anything you have planned or if you have a bucket list for life, let me know what's on them!