Are you a high school graduate? Are you about to be?

I'm sure you're tempted to take the summer off before college, lounging around at home watching MTV and the Travel Channel.

But beware: as fun as that kind of summer sounds on paper, just laying around gets boring.

Keep your mind active and your bank account full with a great summer job. Not all jobs have to be tedious, and you may be able to make pretty good cash only working part-time.

Check out some of the following jobs:

Tutor
- A lot of kids have to take summer school classes to improve their academic skills or to retake classes they failed. If you are really interested in history or English, you may find yourself loving a job tutoring younger students. Plus, it often pays well, especially if you can show them a grade report and sample work you've done.

Camp Counselor
- If you like hanging out with kids and meeting other students your own age, a camp counselor might be a great job for you. It gives you a chance to be outdoors and to influence the lives of younger kids. Plus, you're promised at least one day off a week, so you won't have to be bunked up with the youngin's all the time.

Hotel Receptionist
- If you work as a hotel receptionist, you'll make fairly good cash and you might be able to get part-time work. It's a good opportunity to interact with a lot of different people and become familiar with business practices.

Lifeguard
- I must admit: I was a lifeguard the summer after I graduated from high school. There were a lot of great things about it: the tan, the hours, the bathing suits, getting paid to yell at unruly kids...it was a fun summer job. Then again, it was also hot, tiring and boring some days (when it rained). Keep in mind that if you want to lifeguard, you'll want to join a lifeguarding certification and CPR class now!

Retail
- Retail is good for a couple reasons: you can either work full or part-time, get to make new friends, stay in an air-conditioned environment, and retail shops will also hire you back from summer to summer, or over holidays when you are home from college. If you work at a store you already shop at, you'll also save money with your employee discount.

What's your summer job? Let me know!

Labels: Jaclyn Wile, student blog