Places to hang out with teenage friends

Growing up, parents talk all the time about how their Friday’s after school were spent at the roller skating rink with their friends until closing time. Those were their hang out spots. However, that was also around thirty years ago, when diners were the only other place to hang out with friends if they wanted out of the house.

Now, teens have tons of places to go and hangout with their friends. The list of places range from peaceful coffee shops to loud, energetic amusement parks. Through interviews with some SHS students, we, The Journal, have been able to rank the top hangout spots around the SHS community today.

• The Mocha Nut

The Mocha Nut Coffee Shop is the first on this list. It’s a serene environment that offers a variety of beverages and pasteriesfor their customers. It also provides a place for students to relax with their friends after a long day at school. 

“It’s a place where you can calm down,” sophomore Savannah Shumaker said. “You can sit there, you can study, you can drink some bomb coffee and eat some really good baked goods … It’s just a great place to make some memories.”

• Greenwood Park Mall

Coming in at number two, the mall offers a diverse list of activities. Sitting in the food court talking with friends, shopping or paying a visit to the stores around the mall are just some on a list of plenty. The mall has been around since 1967, around the time when most of our grandparents would have been teenagers. With the amount of history the mall holds, one can never go wrong there.

“You can go around and look at stuff and obviously buy stuff, but you know, it’s a really chill place,” freshman Eli Thomas said. 

• BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse

BJ’s is a chill environment to chat and have a good time. It’s similar to The Mocha Nut, but BJs is more meant for just eating and hanging out rather than being a quiet place to study. This is number three on the rankings because BJs is at the mall. It’s just its own restaurant near the front without any entrances into the mall itself. 

“The atmosphere and the people who work there are so nice and it’s so close to the mall so when you’re done, if you want to go shopping then go for it,” junior Grayson Meece said. “That’s usually where we go after shows. We’re so tired. We just go there to get a pizookie … It just makes all the stress of the show just go away.”

• Foam Warriorz

Foam Warriorz is an indoor foam combat, axe throwing, arcade fun park. They offer a variety of games, including nerf gun wars and more. It’s a very active and fun environment that’s different from the rest of the places on this list. It’s a place meant to have fun and be lively with friends rather than sitting and having a conversation.This is ranked as number four on the list because it’s something that just opened and doesn’t have the same publicity as the other hangout spots.

“Back when I was a kid, me and my brother would always make our homemade nerf battles,” junior Grant Lizon said. “But Foam Warriorz was like a step up … There isn’t very many places like that around and the fact that there isn’t that many around is what I think makes it special.”

• Suds

Suds is a place where people take their old cars to show them off and a location where teenagers spend their summer vacations hanging out at. Looking at the cars, eating food and socializing with people from all over the state are a few of the things that draw people to hangout there. Suds is ranked as number five because it’s also not a very well known place. People either know about it or they don’t. There is no in between. 

“We just talk and conversate about anything related to a car and it’s just a nice hang out spot,” sophomore Meredith Ziegler said. “There are some people who don’t know anything about cars and there are some people who want to know everything about cars … It’s just fun and enjoyable.

There are so many more places that teens have to be able to hang out at, and these five are what we believed to be the best options for SHS students. 

Summer is already about halfway done! Can you believe it?  If you’re a teenager you’ve probably got tons of spare time, but you just don’t know what to do with it.  Summer can be a fun time, but it gets boring when you run out of ideas (or need a screen break!)

Here are 100 things for teens to do over the summer break. These ideas are fun, for indoors and out, mostly cheap, and will help you get the most out of summer. These ideas are in no particular order and include a variety of activities whatever the weather. They’re not just for teens either. Parents, younger children, and the anyone young-at-heart who is looking for some summer fun can enjoy this list.

Have fun and stay safe!

Top 20 Most Fun Summer Activities for Bored Teenagers

1. Watch a classic old movie (like Sunset Boulevard or Rebel Without a Cause).
2. Go to a thrift store or garage sale and find something oddly fabulous for your wardrobe or room.
3. Stargaze from on the roof, or pull your mattress out into the yard.
4. Invent a new type of sandwich (peanut butter and salami?).
5. Make a zine and put copies in all your friends’ mailboxes.
6. Learn to cook something complicated, like macaroons or baked Alaska.
7. Have a yard sale and sell your junk. ($$$!)
8. Make a new playlist of the best tunes for your summertime soundtrack.
9. Teach yourself some new dance moves (learn to moonwalk and pirouette).
10. Take up the ukulele (or some other instrument).
11. Do something kind for someone—a neighbor, a family member, or a complete stranger.
12. Get arty and draw, paint, or collage a portrait.
13. Act like a tourist and visit the top attractions in your town.
14. Climb a tree.
15. Write and produce a film or play with your friends.
16. Have a scream-a-thon (have a sleepover with friends and watch scary movies!).
17. Re-create a childhood photo (you’re a lot bigger now).
18. Go on a photo safari.
19. Clean your room (just kidding!).
20. Make your own list of things to do when you’re bored (with better ideas!).

Things for Teens to Do Outside During Summer

1. Try out a new sport (frisbee golf, bocce ball, kanjam).
2. Make and fly a kite.
3. Play crazy golf.
4. Relax in a hammock.
5. Plant some vegetable seeds.
6. Jump in the pool with your clothes on.
7. Swim at your local public pool.
8. Camp out in the garden.
9. Go roller-blading.
10. Have a picnic in the park.
11. Go fishing.
12. Go on a scavenger hunt.
13. Construct a tire swing.
14. Have a day at the beach (build sandcastles, paddle, beachcomb etc.).
15. Run through sprinklers!
16. Have a picnic or a BBQ.
17. Bury a time capsule to dig up in five years.
18. Organize a tug-of-war.
19. Have a bonfire and roast marshmallows or make s’ mores.
20. Build an obstacle course.

Fun Indoor Activities for Teenagers

1. Move the furniture around in your room to give it a fresh, new look.
2. Re-do your room with craft projects.
3. Handwrite letters to friends and family.
4. Make a collage for your wall.
5. Experiment with origami.
6. Go to a museum.
7. Learn a new language.
8. Start a journal.
9. Do a 1,000 piece puzzle.
10. Read a newspaper front to back.
11. Make your own popsicles.
12. Give your pet a bath.
13. Start a blog (on Tumblr, Blogger, or WordPress).
14. Play a complete game of Monopoly.
15. Make a vlog on YouTube.
16. Buy some exotic fruit from the store and make a fruit salad.
17. Cook a homemade pizza.
18. Make a root beer float.
19. Buy several flavors of ice-cream and have an ice-cream feast!
20. Paint a mural on one of your bedroom walls.
21. Build a fortress out of cardboard boxes (you’re not too old for that).
22. Go bowling.
23. Try a new food you’ve never tasted before.
24. Learn a magic trick and perform it for your friends.
25. Make non-alcoholic cocktails!

Inexpensive Things for Teenagers to Do

1. Watch the sunset (or rise!).
2. Play card games: poker, spit, or solitaire. If you don’t know-how? it’s time to learn!
3. Organize a neighborhood cleanup.
4. Volunteer at a charity, soup kitchen, shelter, or nursing home.
5. Go to the library and take out some books you wouldn’t usually read.
6. Clean out your drawers and donate your unwanted items to a thrift store.
7. Write letters (not emails, but actual pen-and-ink notes!).
8. Sunbathe. But remember to use sunblock!
9. Grab a map and go for a long walk to a place that you’ve never been to.
10. Move furniture around in your room to give it a fresh, new look.
11. Teach yourself to do a handstand.
12. Make a dance routine to your favorite song.
13. Practice voice impersonations.

Things for Teenagers to Do With Friends

1. Have a water balloon fight.
2. Hold a mini Olympics with your friends.
3. Go on a long bike ride.
4. Have a garden party. Ask friends to bring different foods!
5. Host a craft, beauty, dinner party, movie night with friends.
6. Play rounders with your family or friends at the local park or sports-field.
7. Have clothes swap: Have all your friends bring items they no longer want and trade with each other.
8. Hold a group yard sale or car wash.
9. Make your own face scrub or other beauty product using ingredients from the kitchen or garden.
10. Make your own slip-n-slide with plastic garbage bags.
11. Have a big game of capture-the-flag.

Things a Teenager Can Do Alone

1. Apply for a summer job.
2. Read a book in the sun.
3. Learn a few words or phrases in a foreign language.
4. Get a high score on your favorite game.
5. Buy a load of old magazines from a bookstore or charity shop and read them.
6. Take some interesting photographs of your neighborhood.
7. Fly a kite.
8. Listen to some new music.
9. Start a scrapbook or journal.
10. Learn a new instrument.
11. Write a song, poem, or short story.
12. Decorate a pinboard with postcards, pictures, and notes and hang it in your room.
13. Write an online article like this one!
14. Spend some time experimenting and overhauling your closet: mend, toss, alter, layer, hem, mix-n-match.
15. Research your family tree.
16. Paint a T-shirt with acrylic paints.
17. Bake a three-tier cake.
18. Give yourself a makeover—cut your hair short, try a new hairdo, or do crazy nails.
19. Make some handmade soap.
20. E-mail or phone a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while.
21. Buy some posters and put them up in your room.
22. Spend a day without watching T.V or going on the computer.
23. Bake some home-made bread.
24. Go to a movie alone (it’s not so bad!).
25. Send a message in a bottle.
26. Prank call a friend.
27. Make a keepsake box of memories from this summer, fill it with photos, messages, postcards from places you’ve been, and wrap it in pretty paper. Keep it for years to come to remind you of your awesome summer!

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{Reference: https://wehavekids.com/parenting/100-things-to-do-this-summer-teens}

• 07-19-2019

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