Summer is almost here Mustangs and the members of The Roosey Review want to encourage you to make the most of the time you are about to have on your hands. Read on for all of our recommendations on how to make this summer vacation a memorable one!

Visit Museums. 

One fun thing to do this summer is to visit museums. Some cool ones include the Academy of Motion Pictures, the Grammy Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

The Academy has a history of cinema dating to the 1920s all the way to modern times, with new exhibitions such as “Ponyo” by Studio Ghibli and one of the life of  Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. They also have a screening of movies playing all throughout summer, many of Monroe’s filmography, in honor of the exhibit, and a handful of other movies. Tickets are $5 per person, and some are free for academy members.

Hit Up the Beach

Over summer break, days can get hot, especially when living in Southern California. Since it is along the coast, many nearby beaches are available. Although most people have already visited a local beach, there are numerous more worth checking out.

The first beach recommended would be Newport Beach. This is a coastal city around 50 minutes to an hour away from Riverside, depending on traffic. Though it is less well-known than beaches around the Santa Monica area, it is a suitable place to spend a beach day. It accommodates a wide range of restaurants and a few shops. The ocean is often cold at times, however.

In addition, Oceanside Beach is a city in North San Diego County. It is about an hour and twenty-minute drive from Riverside, disregarding traffic. Although it is considered on the further side of things, it is an excellent beach for biking or getting exercise. Despite its many pros, it can be busy. The Oceanside pier can be a fantastic way to earn steps.

One of the most scenic beaches is Laguna Beach, located in Orange County. This beach offers coves for swimmers, shops for pedestrians, and picturesque hills for mountain biking. It has unique rock formations as well. Though it is a great place for photography, the beach itself is quite rocky. Laguna Beach is around a fifty-two-minute drive from Riverside.

Last but not least, Coronado Beach. This beautiful beach is located on an island across from the city of San Diego. Its blindingly white sands are perfect for sunbathing or wave watching. It sits beside the historic hotel, Hotel Del Coronado. With all of its pros, it comes with a couple of cons. Restaurants and shops are significantly far from the sand, and it is very expensive if a family is planning to book a room. The drive is about one hour and forty minutes, with no traffic.

De-stress and Rest

Stressful nights and piles of homework, that’s all over now. Summer is the time to finally relax and take a break from work that would keep students up at night.

Getting enough sleep is very important, and continuing bad habits of sleeping a few hours is not the best decision to make during summer break. An average teen should get eight to 10 hours of sleep, according to the Sleep Foundation. So, it is important to fix sleep hours in the 2 months that students get off. Just be careful to not sleep so much throughout the day, because it is also important to spend time with family and friends, as well as going outside and doing fun activities.

Students should not skip out on a good night’s rest, staying out late and such. While it can be fun during the summer to pull all-nighters with your friends, don’t forget to stick regular to a fixated sleep schedule. Staying out late is a fun once in a while activity, but don’t make that a bad habit just like turning in assignments late.

Make Some Money

Summer is one of the most fun times of year, but without money, options for activities tend to be limited. But luckily, there are quite a few ways for high school students and young adults to make money.

Get a job: If you go into local businesses during a non-busy time, you can ask to speak to a manager. When you speak to the manager, introduce yourself politely and let them know you are looking for a job. Remember to expect rejections at first! But if you ask enough, you can get an interview and eventually a job!

Tutor: If you excel at schoolwork, consider tutoring students over the summer. There are many year-round schools in the CNUSD District. Put up flyers or collaborate directly with administration to obtain clients.

Yard Sale: Do you or your family have extra miscellaneous things laying around the house? Then create a yard sale! Get some signs and advertise it about a week before. When the day comes, organize the stuff neatly and set fair prices. Even if you do not receive a lot of customers, you will surely make some money!

Ask neighbors for jobs: If you can mow a lawn or watch kids, you can ask your neighbors if they need any assistance with these things. Oftentimes, they will admire your drive and hire you at some point, even if it is just for an odd job.

Don’t spend your summer without money. Get out there and find ways to secure some cash, and then have the best summer ever!

Stay Active

During the summer, most people get bored with just staying at home and not getting out. Being active can cure your summer boredom.

Some ideas for staying active this summer include playing new sports, going for a run, going on a bike ride, or even dancing to music. The good thing about being active is that it can contribute to your mental health. While being active, your brain releases feel-good chemicals.

So when you are doing nothing at home, remember you can always go outside, grab a bat and ball, go on a run, play some music and dance, or even ride a bike. Remember to stay active.

Read a Book

Over the duration of summer, many students may find themselves beginning to become bored or overwhelmed by constant screentime, or perhaps have set a goal to limit the daily time spent on their phone, but are having trouble staying committed to it. In an age of constant entertainment ready at the disposable of virtually every single individual, the idea of focusing on a single story at a time is rapidly becoming more and more foreign for the average day person. When one watches a film, it has almost become second nature to occasionally glance back at a phone, with about three-quarters of Americans claiming to use their cellphone or another device at least a few times while watching the television in their home, a practice known as “second-screening.” With a lack of required work, and even more time spent laying in bed, the average teenager during summer spends about 8 to 9 hours in front of a screen, meaning that about 43% of adolescents wake up to immediately use their devices before even getting out of their covers. Simultaneously, the most recent survey of Public Participation in the Arts, fewer than half of Americans have read a single book in the last 12 months.

Consequently, many adolescents have also realized the dangers of this habit (or even addiction), and have been accredited to a huge number of resurgence in the want or interest in reading via social media. Obviously, such a feat in the modern age is easier said than done. When one does not grow up with books being a main source of entertainment as previous generations have had, Gen Z and Millennials alike have expressed that staying focused on literature is quite an obstacle–especially when it comes to free time during vacations—as there is always a seductive second option right in their pockets. Although summer may seem like a perfect time to succumb to screens, the idea of no educational distractions is simultaneously and even ironically the perfect time to succumb to literature.

In the era of American illiteracy, one of the most common presumptions among masses is that simply because they have not read an entire book, and understood its contents since Elementary School, all hope has been lost for them. On the contrary, it is possible that the truth is the exact opposite. Having not read a book in years only means that the individual has an entire un-walked world in front of them, not that there is no world at all. These people are free to explore at their own pace and interest, even if it is a bit late . With diverse genres such as horror, romance, criticism, and science fiction, the only student who calls themselves “not fit for reading” is one who has never given it a chance.

Prep for Next Year

Before summer starts, people always wonder how they’re going to end up spending it or who they’re gonna spend it with. Most people plan on spending it having fun with friends, or even catching up on hobbies. Those are great ways to spend the summer however,  the most beneficial and productive way to spend summer is by prepping for the next school year.

To begin, prepping may sound like something uninteresting and a waste of summer, but it could actually help for next school year and reduce stress. Prepping could even give you two summers in a way because it could save you a lot more time on assignments and future work.

Doing this doesn’t have to feel like a chore, simply review what you already know and turn studying into a game. There’s so many ways that you could prep for next year and every single one would be beneficial for you to get through next year.

Get Outside

Once school ends and summer begins, people often find themselves staying inside their houses most of summer break.

In doing so, they miss out on all the experiences summer break has to offer, like going outside, hanging out with friends, or going to the park frequently during the 2-month-long break. So here are some tips to make your summer the best it can be.

One thing you could do is make plans with your friends to go to the park, the mall, the movies, or go hiking.

If you don’t have friends, go make friends, and if you don’t know how, just go online and find a video on how to.

In all, making the most out of summer really depends on the individual, and as long as you enjoy your summer, then that will be time well spent.

Spend Time With Family

One of the biggest things students miss out on through school is spending time with their family. They miss important family moments due to having to wake up so early and head straight to school, then when they come back they have to work on homework. It really just eats up their days so much that opportunities where they could spend time with family they are mostly forced to use for either an extra curricular, or time to themselves since they don’t get much in the first place.

Summer is a great way to negate this, having time off can be nice to be able to relax and have time spent on things other than just schoolwork. Because students don’t have to worry about school anymore, they don’t have to worry about choosing between time to rest, and time to spend with family, they are able to do both.

This is largely important since family is extremely valuable to have in life, especially when alone in the world, if no friends are able to be reached, family is a good option for someone to reach out to. Not being close to family however, can negatively affect how willing they are to reach out to help you later on in life, which is why it is very important to build these relationships sooner rather than later so that a stable foundation of support can already be had when eventually moving on.

Grab Tickets for Some Live Music

This Summer in Southern California there is going to be a lot of music.

In Los Angeles, on June 26, Kid Cudi will be at Crypto.Com arena. Kid Cudi will be joined by Big Boi, A-Trak, Dot Da Genius, me n ü , and Chip tha Ripper. M.I.A was on the tour but got kicked off the tour for going on a political rant.

The day after A$AP Rocky will be at the Kia Forum. His last tour was back in 2019 for his album testing.

The day after that Don Toliver will be at Crypto.com arena for his Octane Tour. SahBabii, SoFaygo, and Chase B will be joining him on this tour

Heading back into the Inland Empire, the “Who Want The Smoke” Fest will happening at the Toyota Arena on June 20 in Ontario. This fest will feature Mike Sherm, Kalan FRFR, 03 Greedo, Bino Rideaux, Big Sad 1900, Lil Kayla, Chef Boy, Lil Maru, Malaynah, Lil Vada, Eke, Azul, Cypress Moreno, and most Importantly SOB X RBE. The group, most know for their songs “Anti” and “Paramedic” off of the 2018 Black Panther soundtrack, has come back together and are performing on stage there.

Last year, Roosevelt Review member Javi Serrano attended the “Who Want the Smoke Fest” and shared, “I really enjoyed the fest last year, it’s definitely not a traditional concert fest because it’s not a ground, it’s in an arena and also takes place over one day, but I would definitely recommend it for someone to check out.”

You can find tickets to the fest on Ticketmaster for as low as $50.

In Orange County, Freddie Gibbs will be performing at the House Of Blues in Anaheim. Serrano also was able to see this artist last year when Gibbs was on his Alfredo tour with The Alchemist.

“Honestly seeing Freddie Gibbs in concert was crazy,” Serrano said. “I’ve seen Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and honestly this concert was better than all those. He played a stacked catalog and brought out Earl Sweatshirt and Anderson Paak. Definitely go check him out.”

To end the summer, Daniel Caesar will be in Anaheim at the Honda Center for his highly anticipated “Son Of Spergy” tour on August 23 and 24. His previous tour was back in 2023. There has been some controversy recently with the tour about how Caesar has been putting on bad shows and barely performing the songs, so go to this tour at your own risk.