When you take classes in school, it’s hard to relax and just enjoy what you’re learning. There’s always the pressure of the grade, how it will affect your GPA, and whether your performance will help or hurt your chances of getting into college.
But when you learn something outside of school, not because you’re trying to get college credit or impress admissions officers, but because you’re just feeding your curiosity, the grades matter a lot less to you and to colleges. No college in the universe will reject you just because you performed poorly in a Thai cooking class (well, except maybe the culinary schools). And many of the best opportunities to learn don’t even come with grades.
You’ve got a little over a month left before you head back to school. What would you really like to know more about and how could you learn it, stress free? Look at your local college or community college classes and see what they offer through their continuing education programs. Look for online classes in your subject of interest. Or teach yourself how to do something using YouTube, online tutorials, or good old fashioned books. Then when you apply to college, tell them all about how you learned to play the harmonica, or draw caricatures, or build web pages.
Don’t do it because you’re trying to impress colleges. Do it because you’re curious. And enjoy the chance to learn when grades don’t matter.