So you’ve just graduated, and you have your last summer of pre-college freedom ahead of you. What are you going to do with it? Get a job? Spend some time volunteering? Take summer classes to prepare yourself for college? While all of these are good ideas—and should be seriously considered—there’s something else that you may want to think about first: a road trip!

While it’s slightly cliché, heading out on a post-graduation summer road trip can be one of the most fun ways to celebrate the end of high school. Just grab a couple friends, pack up your car, and hit the road! Well, it’s not quite that simple, but you get the idea. If you think this seems like a pretty good deal, read on for some tested advice on road tripping.

The key to a successful road trip is planning. Think about things like where you want to go—have you always wanted to take a trip across the country to watch your favorite baseball team take on a faraway team? Or see a mountain range, or the ocean? You’ll also want to think about if you want to stop anywhere on the way—do you have a friend that lives far away that you’d like to stop and spend a day with? Or do you want to check out one of the stops from Weird U.S.? You’ll also need to decide where you’re going to stay when you’re on your adventure. Sleeping in the car—especially with two or three other people—really sucks. So think about getting a hotel room, or staying with a friend or family member. Planning these things in advance will make your trip much more successful.

After you’ve developed a plan for your trip, you’re ready to start preparing. Start your packing list at least a week in advance of your trip so you have time to think of all the things you forgot when you wrote it. Sure, you’ll remember clothes and toiletries . . . but will you think of making a few sandwiches for the drive, so you don’t have to stop and buy expensive fast food? Or a map of the cities that you’ll be stopping in? (You can be fairly certain that you’ll get lost at least once or twice.) Don’t forget things like your cell phone charger, extra batteries for your camera, and a list of emergency phone numbers (for when your phone gets soaked in the lake).

Once you’ve planned and packed, you’re ready to go! Get your crew together, and start driving. Your trip can be as long or as short as you’d like—you can drive across the country, across the state, or even just across the city. So why not start planning today? Call up your friends and start getting a plan together today.

You did it! You graduated from high school . . . and it’s time to celebrate! Graduation parties have become one of the staples of high school graduations. It’s a great time to get family and friends together to celebrate the end of a very significant part of your academic life. The following tips will help you make sure that your grad party (and your grad party hopping) will be great.

Pick a good date. While you may be tempted to just choose a Saturday soon after graduation, it’s better to properly plan your party. Ask your friends when they’re having their parties, and do your best to coordinate so that you can get to at least a few of your close friends’ parties. Even if you’re planning your parties on the same day, you can try to have one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Send invitations. When it comes to sending invitations, there’s only one piece of advice that I can offer: invite a TON of people. Invite your friends, your relatives, your favorite teachers, and anyone else you can think of that might want to show up. The more people you can get to your graduation party, the better. It’s pretty standard to send written invitations via post, but it’s becoming increasingly common to send out email invitations instead. Whichever you decide to do, get a big list of people together and start sending!

Have a good time. When it’s time for your party, enjoy yourself! Talk to everyone that shows up, enjoy the copious amounts of food that are bound to be served, and have fun—this is a party to celebrate your achievement!

Plan your party hopping. Because almost everyone has a graduation party, you have a lot of options for visiting other parties. Running around and going to other graduates’ parties can be just as fun as having your own. Write down when your friends’ parties are, and start making a plan for hitting as many as you can. Graduation parties are in full swing for a few weeks after graduation, so you can plan on having a few full Saturdays of party hopping. Enjoy the summer weather, a whole lot of free food, and hanging out with your friends, free from the worries of school!

Send thank-yous. As much as you may not want to do this, make a point to send thank-you notes to everyone who came to your party, even if they didn’t leave you a card or a gift. It’s a really nice thing to do, and shows your attendees that you appreciate their showing up. It doesn’t need to be a whole lot (everyone understands that you’ll be sending a large number of notes), but it’s really classy to send out a card with a few sentences that express your gratitude.

Graduation parties are one of the best parts of finishing high school. Follow these suggestions and have a great time—you’ve earned it!

Almost every college campus has a school-published newspaper, and many have student-published papers as well. Larger colleges may have several papers that are published both officially and unofficially. But why would you want to read news written by college students when you can get it from a local paper that has professional reporters who have better access to information and write much better? (Or, at least they should. Obviously, some newspaper writers have trouble.)

The first, and most obvious, reason is that you can get news that is relevant to you as a student of your university. Instead of reading about news related to your city, state, or country, the stories in your campus newspaper will be much more specific and applicable to you. You can find campus events, like movie showings, concerts, and free food, academic news, such as finals schedules or registration deadlines, and sports news that pertains to your college’s teams. You won’t find this information in local papers, and not every university website is as helpful as it should be, so grabbing a copy of the newspaper can be a big help when you want to find out about happenings on your campus.

In addition to getting news, however, you can usually find some other useful (or entertaining) information. Many campus newspapers feature a classifieds section for buying, selling, or trading things. This can be useful in times such as when you don’t want to pay full price for a book, but need it really quickly. You can call up someone who’s trying to get rid of a copy and offer them some cash or a trade for another book. It’s also a great place to pick up used furniture. Many students don’t want to move a couch or a set of chairs back home in the summer, an they’ll try to pawn them off through the paper. So take advantage of it—just remember to buy a cover for whatever you buy (college students aren’t always the cleanest or most sanitary people).

One of the best parts about student-published newspapers is that they can publish whatever they’d like. School-run papers will often downplay controversial issues or refrain from using strong language to address particular happenings. This is not the case with student papers. Many of these papers exist simply to be controversial (inspiring stories like this) or humorous (The Onion began as a student newspaper—if you don’t know what The Onion is, familiarize yourself with it before you get to school).

If you enjoy writing, getting a job as a writer, reporter, or editor for your campus newspaper is a great way to gain some experience and have a lot of fun. Even if you aren’t into these things, you can always write letters to the editor of your paper (which is often a great forum for discussing controversial issues at the school). No matter what your involvement—even if just as a reader—it’s good to have some sort of contact with your campus newspaper. People always talk about “getting involved on campus,” and this is a great way to start.

If you’ve talked to an adult (including your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, or any other person older than you) about going to college, it’s pretty likely that you’ve heard the phrase “the best years of your life” at least a couple times. In fact, you’ve probably heard it quite a few times. Every high school graduate hears this statement pretty often, but not very many people stop to ask, “Why?” So I’ll give you my take on it.

Above all else, I think it comes down to the friends you make in college. While you may think that your college friends will be just like your high school friends, but older, think again (and read this blog about handling and coordinating the two groups). Because of how much your personality and interests can change once you enter college, you may be attracted to very different types of people. And that’s totally okay—having a diverse group of friends is a great way to become a socially balanced person. Living with your friends (as roommates, dorm mates, or neighbors) creates a different kind of friendship. These are the friendships that will last the rest of your life (not that your high school friendships won’t, but they require a little more work).

Another of the “best years of your life” reasons is the personal growth that you’ll experience during your time at school. You’ll be exposed to a vastly larger amount of variety, both in your academic and social life. You’ll meet people that will teach you about different ways of thinking and living. You’ll learn about new ways of looking at the world. And you’ll start to solidify some views and beliefs because of what you’ve learned and experienced, instead of having them passed down to you. Through experiencing new cultures and worldviews, you’ll begin to develop your own, unique way of looking at life.

Lastly, I think that it is simply the amount of fun you have that will make your college years the best years of your life. This has a lot to do with the friends you make, as discussed earlier, but there’s more to it. You’ll enjoy learning and the tasks that come with it, such as reading, writing, and discussing. (You may not believe it now, but you will have classes where you’re excited to open your book or get to class in the morning.) You’ll go out with your friends and do things you’ve never done before, or go to a crazy party that you’ll never forget. You’ll experience college dating (which, though it has some serious ups and downs, is a very fun scene to be in) and the flirting that comes along with living with members of the opposite sex. You may study abroad, and spend a month (or even a semester) overseas, learning about a completely separate culture and language. No matter what you do in college, you’ll find that you have a lot of fun doing it.

And that, my friends, is why your college years are the best years of your life.

If you’ve watched any of the typical college movies, (like Animal House or Old School) you’ve probably seen or heard at least some mention of fraternities or sororities. Because these organizations don’t exist at the high school level, it’s likely that you don’t really understand what they are. And because there are so many questions about them, I thought I’d give you a little bit of a primer.

First, it’s important to realize that not all fraternities and sororities are centers of debauchery and hazing. While these things do happen, they are not the main focus of most Greek societies. These organizations exist for many reasons; some are service-oriented, some are interest-based, and others are set up for students belonging to specific ethnicities.

Fraternities and sororities are, at their core, social organizations. They exist to get students together to form friendships and join a tight-knit community. Many of these organizations have requirements for membership. For example, a service-oriented sorority may require that, to maintain membership, a student has to complete a certain number of volunteer service hours each semester. An interest-based fraternity may require that each member participates in a certain activity, such as an intramural sport. By bringing together people with common interests or goals, Greek societies help to form strong social circles among students.

Some fraternities and sororities have houses in which the members of the group live. Small groups can all fit into one large house; larger groups may only allow seniors or members in high standing to occupy the house. This provides another opportunity for remaining in close contact with other members. Even if a group doesn’t have a house, they may have a “chapter house” in which they meet for group meals, meetings, or society parties.

Joining a fraternity or sorority is called “pledging” or “rushing” (many groups are changing the name of this process due to the negative connotations that have become associated with these terms). Potential society members usually spend a week or more with the current members, getting to know the organization and its history, or engaging in public service. Once the pledge period is over, the members of the society will extend invitations to join the fraternity or sorority to the applicants that they feel will be the best fit.

Many Greek societies behave in very different ways than have been traditionally thought of. A large number of fraternities and sororities are honor societies, which gather monthly or semi-monthly for discussions, guest speakers, or other similar events. Gaining entrance into organizations like this is usually completed by filling out an application form or interviewing with the head of the chapter.

Whether or not you choose to join a fraternity or a sorority, it’s good to understand what they are and what they do. While they’ve received a very bad rap over the past several decades, the vast majority of them are very well-run and help to form very strong bonds between students. Explore the options on your campus and see if there’s a Greek society that fits what you’re interested in.