#2 Take a day trip to the dunes with friends

What student doesn't love summer? While there are always a handful who continue to take classes during break, no one dislikes the time of year when the sun is shining, flip flops are flopping and a sense of freedom seems to breeze about in the humid air.

This past summer, while one of my most busy because I was working, was also the most liberating. My friends and I would stay up late having bonfires and watching movies, doing late-night runs to McDonald's and even having water balloon sling-shot contests after midnight. It was my last summer as a high school kid, or at least it felt like it even after I'd graduated. I felt young. I felt free.

We all felt this way, and that is exactly why we made a summer bucket list with forty activities that we wanted to do together before we all went off to the seemingly scary adult world that is college. Our time left as "kids" was limited, and so we did nearly everything on that list, including a trip to the Indiana Dunes.

Now, ask people my age from the Chicago suburbs and they might tell you that the Warren Dunes in Michigan are more fun, but I don't really think it matters. The point of this entry is to tell you that one thing every college student must do one summer is load up the car with as many friends and food items as possible and make a trip to Lake Michigan to find some dunes. Take a few hours to wade in the water (but don't bring an inflatable inner tube or the lifeguard will yell at you) and then, when your feet aren't burning on the coal-like sand, try and run up the dunes without falling. Race your friends to the top. Push each other down. Laugh at the friend who's lagging behind and can't catch their breath. Yell at the one who made it up there first and won't let you forget it. 

When you all are finally at the top of the seemingly endless hill, explore. Follow the trails without searching for a real destination. Feel the sand turn to grass underneath your bare feet, and avoid the potentially harmful plant life that might be lurking ahead. Play camp counselor and make your friends follow you around as you force them deeper into the woods. Don't keep track of time. Let yourself get lost. Listen to the sounds around you; you don't hear these everyday. 

Finally, retrace your steps and sit at the top of the hill. Take some time to appreciate the view in front of you. Let yourself call it an ocean instead of a lake by accident, because at that moment that's truly what it seems like. 

Be young. Be free.