1. This was a weird year. Depending on your school district, you may have been at school in person for some, none, or all of the past school year. Scheduling may have been different, safety precautions were almost certainly different. Whether it was a great or a terrible year, talk with your parents about what factors made it that way. Things that you can change going forward, or things over which you had no control? Work to change situations where you have some choice, let the rest go, and move forward being your best self.
2. Think about how that first year of high school went for you academically. Do you need more academic challenges? Do you need a better strategy for keeping track of your assignments? Are your study skills up to the challenges of high school work? Look over your courses and grades for the past year. Is everything on your transcript as you expect it to be?
3. Get involved! Join a club or start one. Join a team, at school or outside of school. Find something you care about in your community, and talk to other people who care about the same things, whether that is sports, animals, the environment, or robots. Make a plan to continue that involvement during the coming school year.
4. Read! Now that you have a break from school reading, do some reading for fun. Remember how you loved going to the library when you were younger? Read fiction. Read non-fiction. Read the newspaper. Definitely read things longer form that Twitter!
5. Are you consistently getting at least 8 hours of sleep per night? Teens tend to get shortchanged in the sleep department, especially during the school year, but it is vital to learning and overall health and well-being. Establish good sleep habits over the summer, and then keep it going during the school year!