97 Things to Do Before You Finish High School

by Erika Stalder

  A Medley of Scents and Flavors

  Try growing and cooking with these lesser-known herbs:

  anise: tangy in salads as an herb and sweet in cookies in seed form

  borage: tastes a bit like cucumber and is delicious in iced tea and lemonade

  chervil: tastes similar to parsley and perfect for most soups and cheese soufflés

  hyssop: has a pungent taste and can be mixed into onion dip

  lovage: tastes similar to celery and yummy in soups and salads

  39 Know Your Silhouette and Colors

  Thanks to hyperstyled music videos, hip-hop moguls starting their own lines, and celebs plugging just about every brand out there, fashion pervades our lives. Are plaids totally retro? Can I wear white after Labor Day? Is orange the new black? It can be hard to keep up with trends, but fashion is about more than that. It's about having a personal style that expresses who you are at this moment in your life. By paying just a little attention to your body type and the clothes and colors that flatter your frame and skin tone, you can develop a unique style that's based on individuality and feeling attractive, and not about what GQ or Vogue dictates.

  How to Do It

  Figuring out your body type, or silhouette, helps determine what sorts of clothes look best on you. Most guys are built like a solid rectangle, while girls can have rectangle, triangle, inverted triangle, or hourglass shapes. To determine your silhouette, go online and search for “body shape” and “style.” If you look at various sites, you'll find silhouette illustrations, clothing recommendations, and makeover tips.

  As for what color clothing looks best on you, fashion experts look at your skin, eyes, and hair for complementary tones. One approach is to go straight to the mall and ask a professional to assess what colors are best for you. Some department stores employ image consultants who love to talk all day about this stuff (think Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), and many cosmetic counters do the same. Hitting them up for tips won't cost you a penny — unless you somehow get sucked into buying a boatload of cosmetics.

  What Season Are You?

  In the world of fashion, you'll sometimes hear people talk about what season they are; it's a concept that beauty professionals use to figure out what colors look best on people. Check out the graph below and see where you fall. Fit into more than one category? You are probably a mix of seasons — most people are.

  40 Learn About Safe Sex

  O K, you know the drill: If you're going to be intimate with a guy or a girl during your teenage years (or ever), you have to be safe about it. You've grown up in the era of safe sex education, and even if your parents or community leaders have tried to shelter you from reality, you know full well from friends, teachers, and maybe even your own experiences that the big league pleasures of physical love and hormonal lust come with some big league risks (like STDs and unwanted pregnancies). Sex doesn't have to be a scary topic. Ask a lot of questions, educate yourself, and keep your body safe. And that also means saying “no” to sex if you're not ready — which is a perfectly adult move that, unlike saying “yes” when you're unsure, is never followed by regret.

  No Means No

  Never let anyone pressure you into having sex, whether it's your first time or your fifth. This goes for girls as well as boys. To have or not have sex is a totally personal choice, and only you can decide when and with whom you want to share the experience.

  How to Do It

  Sure, it's difficult and a little embarrassing to talk about sex with your parents, but in most cases they will appreciate your willingness to be open and honest about such an important topic. If you just don't have that type of relationship with Mom and Dad, talk to your doctor, a health counselor at school, or another knowledgeable adult about safe sex. Planned Parenthood is an excellent and affordable resource for basic information and counseling. Are you aware of various methods of birth control? Do you know how to properly use a condom? There's no room for error with this stuff, so ask the experts before bumbling through an awkward or unsafe experience with a partner.

  FIVE: To Get to Know the World Around You

  41 Get a Passport

  Traveling outside your own country for the first time is one of the most exciting things you'll do, but it also requires careful planning. A solid backpack and a well-thought-out itinerary help a lot, but they won't do you any good without a passport. In fact, due to a law passed in the beginning of 2007, you even need a passport to fly to our bordering countries, Mexico and Canada. A passport is your ticket to crossing national borders and embarking on jet-setting adventures. The little blue booklet contains your name, place and date of birth, specially assigned identification number, and headshot (photo of your face), and is checked by airport and border officials anytime you leave the US and enter or exit any other country. The point of having a passport is to prove that you are who you say you are, and not some wackjob traveling with a fake ID. Even if you're not planning on an international trip just yet, it's still good to get a passport; processing can take a long time, so getting it sorted out now means you won't have to rush if a travel op suddenly comes your way.

  How to Do It

  Check out the government travel site, www.travel.state.gov, for the nearest passport office location, and download and fill out the application form before you go to save time. Be prepared to wait: Lines can be unbelievably long. You need to bring your own passport photos, which are small official pictures that you can have taken at designated places, like certain photo booths, drugstores, and travel agencies. They show your full face, with open eyes, from the tip of your head to the top of your shoulders. (Warning: Like most official pictures, passport photos tend to make you look a little less gorgeous than you really are.) Along with your photos, you must bring proof of identification and US citizenship. A certified birth certificate and driver's license or other government-issued ID card work best, but if you don't have these, see the government site for other options. If you're under 18, your parent or guardian will need to be present and provide consent. Processing fees are close to $100. Your passport should take about six weeks to arrive. When you get it, be sure to put it in a safe place — it's a total pain to replace.

  42 Visit a Foreign Country

  While journeying to another country is pretty ambitious, and certainly not something all teens have the opportunity to do, you should jump at the chance if it comes along. Visiting a foreign country opens your eyes to other people, customs, and ways of life fascinatingly different from your own. Despite Disney's lyrical promise, it's not really a small world after all, but rather a ginormous, endlessly complex global network of far-flung locales from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Even Canada, though similar in culture and relatively nearby, makes for an exciting trip. There's much more to planet Earth than your own backyard — and, souvenirs are way cooler when you've had to haggle over prices in another language.

  How to Do It

  A Mexican cruise with 10 pals is a pipe dream for most, especially in terms of getting the parental OK, so you'll need to get more creative with your adventure planning. One option is to bark up the family tree and seek out any relatives living in other countries. How could your dad deny you the chance to bond with a long-lost uncle, or the opportunity to get a sense of your roots beyond the Red, White, and Blue? If your family strictly resides in the US of A, investigate an international exchange program (like American Field Service — www.afs.org) in which you live with a family in another country while in school or during the summer. When presenting the details to your parents, tell them as much as possible about the organization you'd like to go with, the host country you want to visit, the fees involved, and scholarships offered. If you play your cards right, you'll soon be practicing a foreign language firsthand and meeting cute new potential dates — with accents.

  Another State of Mind

  If you want to travel but can't venture out of the country just yet, venture into another US state. Midwest residents should check
out a coastal locale (California and New York are worlds unto themselves), beach bums should surf inland turf (deep in the heart of Texas), and everyone should consider a visit to national treasures such as Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Teen tours go to lots of these places and not all of them will break the bank.

  43 Learn a Foreign Language

  If you're using the time spent in Spanish class to catch up on zzzs, you might want to reconsider where you take your siestas. Learning a foreign language is totally worth the time and effort and you'll be glad you stuck with it once you're past the “Hola. ¿Què tal?” phase. Nearly one in five US residents over the age of 4 speaks a language other than English at home, and knowing another language makes foreign travel so much easier. Sure, reading Hebrew (right to left), writing in Tagalog, or speaking Maltese is challenging at first, but becoming bi- or even trilingual will make you worldly and sophisticated, even if it's some time until you leave your hometown.

  Don't Wait

  Most people decide they want to learn a foreign language later on — like when they are in their twenties — but it's best not to wait. Once you leave high school, lessons get pretty pricey. It's also way easier to pick up a language at 16 than 26 or 36.

  How to Do It

  Stop taking power naps during language class at school. Better yet, make language study an extracurricular activity so it feels more like fun and less like homework. Shop around for CDs and MP3s featuring easy-to-follow grammar and conversation lessons. Listen to them on headphones for total immersion, and don't be shy about repeating phrases aloud as you hear them for the hundredth time — repetition is the key to language mastery. You can also listen to music in foreign languages, which is a great way to increase your vocab. Get together once a week with friends who are similarly eager to pick up German or Mandarin, and, if you know any native speakers, hang out with those who are willing to point out your mistakes — and teach you curse words. You can also swap lessons with another person who already speaks the language you're studying. Stick with it and, before you know it, you'll be a polyglot.

  44 Participate in a New Cultural Tradition

  Whether you realize it or not, you regularly take part in various cultural traditions, both on special occasions and in your daily life. Some of those traditions may be handed down from relatives who were born in other countries; others are American traditions that are so ingrained you likely don't see them as traditions at all (like doing the wave at a baseball game or setting off fireworks on July 4). But do you ever take time to purposefully learn a new tradition from someone else's culture? With so many ethnicities represented in the US, you can explore foreign cultures without going very far. Everywhere you look, there are tons of traditions, parties, rituals, and holidays to take part in, from Japanese tea ceremonies and Tunisian henna art to Scottish kilt-wearing and Mexican Dia de los Muertos fiestas.

  How to Do It

  Ask friends from various cultural backgrounds how they celebrate their homelands and histories, or what unusual daily customs their families practice. Then join them in observing these customs and their special holiday traditions. Jewish friends might invite you into their sukkah — which is a temporary, hand-built house — to eat a tasty dinner during Sukkot, a yearly harvest festival. Argentines like to share a cup of maté, an antioxidant-rich green tea drink that everyone sips from the same bombilla, or straw. Thai friends might show you a new recipe, and Korean friends may teach you to remove your shoes before entering the house. Another way to become more worldly is to go to community centers, which host lots of cultural events. And many restaurants feature special menus commemorating ethnic holidays, so you can pig out on something other than burgers for a change.

  All for One, One for All

  Some traditions unite all cultures, such as the International Day for Tolerance. Everyone is encouraged to celebrate this universal plea for nonviolence on November 16. For info on this and other occasions inclusive of all cultures, visit www.doonething.org/calendar/.

  45 Visit Your State Capital

  You probably memorized all 50 state capitals back in grade school, but have you ever visited the political center of your own state, let alone any capitals of the other 49? They're not always the most glamorous cities (Sacramento instead of San Francisco? Albany instead of NYC?), but they do house our country's leaders in architecturally diverse buildings that boast golden domes and decent gift shops. Boise and Baton Rouge, Concord and Carson City, Topeka and Tallahassee — tour the capital closest to home, then fan out. Bonus points if you ever get to Juneau and Honolulu.

  How to Do It

  Many schools sponsor trips to the capital, but you can also take it upon yourself to head to Montgomery, Dover, Cheyenne, or wherever with your family or some friends. Pile in the car and drive the dozens or hundreds of miles (longer distances deserve a cheesy motel stopover) to that locus of political intrigue, historical happenstance, and tourist-trap gift shops. Call or email in advance to see if it's necessary to arrange a tour of the capitol buildings, and ask if you can shake hands with a legislator while you're there. Get a map with the main attractions, then mosey around to learn about your state's history, most likely rooted in false promises and bloodshed — but fascinating nonetheless.

  Chillin' With George and Abe

  The capital of capitals is, of course, Washington, DC. Buzzing with political scandal and studded with monuments to great (and not so great) presidents, the District of Columbia is pretty awesome no matter what time of year you visit, from the snowy winter to the humid summer to the milder seasons in between. More than a dozen world-class museums are all free of charge. For everything you need to know, check out www.dc.gov.

  46 Take a Camping Trip

  Mix trekking through fields of wildflowers, bathing in an aquamarine pond, and sleeping under the stars with getting attacked by bloodthirsty mosquitoes, being forced to use leaves for toilet paper, and eating cold beans straight from the can, and you get the amazing and equally challenging experience of camping. Even though leaving behind creature comforts can take some getting used to, it's a small price to pay to commune with nature. Whether with relatives, friends, or a community group, camping for a few days will instill deep appreciation for natural splendor, survival skills, and your comfy bed back home.

  How to Do It

  Here are some tips to planning a successful camping trip.

  Gather a group of people that includes at least one or two who have camped before.

  Decide if you want to do car camping, stay in a cabin, or go for the full-on tent experience, then thoroughly research the best spot for your outdoors excursion. Kampgrounds of America (www.koa.com) is a great resource for finding nice, clean campsites that have good facilities.

  Check that the weather is reasonable where you are going; there can be huge climate changes only miles from home, and camping in cold weather is not for the faint of heart.

  Bring a warm sleeping bag, plenty of food and water, insect repellent, some music (or, even better, instruments to play), flashlights with extra batteries, good hiking shoes (waterproof!), rain gear, sunscreen, and a journal and camera to record your adventures.

  When pitching your tent, remember that spots farther from the water are usually less buggy and locations surrounded by trees will protect you from wind and sun.

  Pitch your tent on dry, flat ground void of big rocks and anthills. (If your tent is on slanted ground, position your head uphill.)

  If you don't have wheels to travel or can't get permission from your parents to spend a night out in the woods, consider what lies beyond your back door. Pitching a tent in the backyard is a great warm-up for bigger adventures … and you won't have to go far if you have to hit the commode in the middle of the night.

  Bring It In, Pack It Out

  When camping, be sure to take out everything you brought in with you, including any granola bar wrappers, empty water bottles, and other non-biodegradable item
s. When going number 2 in the woods, dig a 6-inch hole, do your business, and cover the hole. You can also bury used TP, or put it all into a secured plastic bag that you can dispose of in a trash can when you're back in civilization.

  47 Hike to a Mountaintop

  If you're feeling stuck about a decision, or just in life in general, it's important to bust out of your day-to-day and get a new perspective on things. One of the best ways to do this is to climb a high peak and gaze down at the world below. Hiking to a mountaintop is not only excellent exercise in the great outdoors but also a trip from the known to the unknown, an adventure in which the journey is just as important as the destination. You don't have to conquer Mount Everest or scale Kilimanjaro (yet). In fact, the point is not to conquer a mountain, period — it's to become a part of it. So start by setting your sights on an accessible summit and plan to spend a day (or two) absorbed in the grandeur of Mama Nature.