Read.

Call me a nerd, but I really love reading—always have, always will. When I was very young, my mom taught me about the sacredness of books; one of the first places we found when we moved to Park City in 1992 was the library in town (I still have my first card, complete with my name spelled KAtrEne).
However, I’ve found that, recently, I haven’t been reading like I used to. Sure, I devoured the seventh Harry Potter with as much fervor as the first. And, yeah, I went through a phase a year or two ago where I read every book Palahniuk had ever written. But most of what I read these days is for school: The Bible As/In Literature, Bless Me Ultima, and my economics text book. I choose books for their usefulness, rather than their quality—“Will this help me on the AP Lit test?” “Can I write an essay about this book?”
But I’ve found that, most times, the most useful books are the most tedious and the least enjoyable (That means you, Beowulf). Reading isn’t about being able to regurgitate information for a quiz or picking out the best quotes to support an arbitrary theme. It’s about finding a story that can reach that level of verisimilitude that completely catches you off guard. It's about learning something you never would have been taught had you not picked that particular book.
So, sometimes, you have to put aside your college essays or your copy of Traditions and Encounters or the SOAPSS chart over which you’ve been laboring and pick up something you actually want to read. Otherwise, you could lose any enjoyment you might still get from reading. Sure, you probably won’t be able to reference your favorite novel on your SAT essay, but that’s not the point.
The point is to take your education into your own hands and teach yourself something you actually want to learn, whether it be who Tyler Durden is, why every girl in America seems to be obsessed with Edward Cullen, or what occurred in the oval office during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The point is to read.