When I began my senior year last fall, I had considerable time to contemplate what I wanted to do during my second semester as I anxiously waited to hear from colleges. Did I plan on studying at all? Did I want to take advantage of senioritis and skip as much as possible? Or did I just want to take it easy and fly through my classes without really caring at all? A good friend of mine offered a solution to second semester boredom: try and learn as many practical and impractical skills and experience as much of life as possible.

Obviously, the pursuit of new skills and experiences was not my main focus for senior year, as I was more concerned about college than anything else. However, when second semester finally began and I had nothing better to do, I figured I’d start my quest by learning how to play the harmonica.

I have played various instruments since the fourth grade, beginning with the clarinet, two types of saxophone and ending with the guitar. When I received my harmonica as a gift from my parents, it is safe to assume that I was a bit cocky and underestimated the little instrument. After attempting (and failing) to play simple songs like “Oh Susanna” and “London Bridge is Falling Down,” I came to the realization that I had been beaten by the thing and gave up. It’s possible I may attempt to play in college, but who knows.

The second skill I tried to master was the art of cooking with appliances other than your standard microwave and toaster, and making something a bit more complicated than grilled cheese. When I was really young, my mother tried to teach me the nuances of cooking “real” food; however, that was a long time ago and I had forgotten pretty much everything. My father had taught me everything there is to know about cooking over a grill throughout the years, but I was about to attempt something on a whole different level.
I started out small, beginning with things like sauce-less pasta, pancakes and even something foreign—French toast. I had practiced for the majority of a weekend and decided to challenge myself with cooking chili. Without getting into too much detail, I wound up burning myself on the stove, stung my eyes after stupidly rubbing them after handling hot peppers, cut myself with a chef’s knife and destroyed the chili which in the end smelled so bad that my two dogs who normally eat whatever they can get wouldn’t even enter the kitchen. Cooking wasn’t and isn’t my forte.

By far the most fun experience I had during this semester was learning to ride a motorcycle and getting an “M” on my driver’s license after passing the MVA test. If you were to ask anyone who knows me about my interests in cars and other motor vehicles, they would say I’m a fanatic. I have to agree with them, as I have spent countless weekends with my father working on my car and a project 1970 Mustang Mach 1, in addition to an unhealthy amount of time on the Ford Racing and car websites researching and buying car parts.
My motorcycle experience began when my mother, a normally cautious woman, asked me if I wanted to take a riding class with her to a get motorcycle licenses. There was no way I was going to let this rare opportunity slip away, and I immediately answered yes. After weeks of teasing from my father about failing (he’s terrified of motorcycles but won’t admit it), my mother and I began class, which was taught by your stereotypical movie biker (i.e. leather, studded jacket, Harley-Davidson bike, etc.) and was comprised of two days of classroom instruction and two days of hard riding followed by a written and riding test.

Just as with the harmonica, I underestimated the motorcycle I was given to ride and wound up nearly killing myself on a few occasions. Unlike a car, you have to use both hands and feet to operate the clutch, throttle and brakes, which in the beginning is a pain to figure out. After four days of the difficult but incredibly fun class, I emerged with my new license. My body and mind may have been drained, but I had accomplished what I set out to do.

Thinking back on all the crazy and unique things I tried to learn and experience, I realized the importance of trying new things and learning skills that might serve you in the future. I know that I had an absolute blast my second semester senior year as I learned and experienced things I probably wouldn’t have if I had been busier. For emerging seniors, when you’re sitting at home bored out of your mind second semester next year give trying new things a shot.