By Bri Pierce

You have four years of high school (more or less) to totally hate the entire experience or make it the most bizarre, hysterical four years of your life. Personally,  I would choose the second option. If you graduate high school and tell me that Batavia was boring, I would tell you that Batavia’s not boring. You are. Before you leave this small town and wipe your fake tears away, there are 10 things you should do.

1. Swim in the Fox River: Are you even a Cali kid if you haven’t swam in the Pacific Ocean? Are you even a Batavia kid if you haven’t swam in the Fox River?
2. Go sledding with a mattress: Tradition can be so boring. Why go sledding with an actual sled when you could support innovation and use an old mattress? A mattress allows more people to fit and it offers constant comfort as you fall at your own will down an icy hill.
3. Run through a carwash: This may come to you as a shock and you may be thinking by now, this isn’t the bucket list I was expecting, and you’re very much correct. When you live in a town such as Batavia you have to start thinking outside the box. What do we have that isn’t being taken advantage of? One of those things is a carwash because honestly whose car gets dirty here.
4. Hammocking: Hammocking in the tri-cities is practiced like religion.
5. Go to downtown Chicago and DON’T visit the Bean: Reading that probably triggered half the school and some of you are probably already emailing me threats but hear me out. Chicago has so much more to offer that some people don’t get to experience because they are too busy ripping through crowds to see the bean for the 100th time. Try checking out trendy restaurants or abandoned streets.
6. Go to Limestone Cafe: There is this cute little cafe in downtown Batavia most people are aware of but never actually check out. Go there. It’s filled with art from students and they have live music and open mic nights. It’s an automatic feel-good sensation walking in.
7. Chuck a gingerbread house off a roof: As peculiar as this sounds, it’s extremely logical. It’s my senior year and my official last holidays living in my childhood home. It only felt appropriate to throw my last awfully decorated gingerbread house off my roof as closure.
8. Let your feelings out: Write down your angers and issues on scrap paper and throw them in the river (but then go jump in the river and gather them after because I can’t promote littering).
9. Play hide and seek in a convenience store: You’re not too young or too old for this game yet. Also, you’re at the age you don’t care what people think any more so utilize it.
10. Lastly, study in the Batavia Public Library: Some of my favorite high school memories were made there.