They say insanity is doing the same thing more than once and expecting different results. I don’t usually think of myself as insane, but here I am at the end of yet another Fall Break in which I didn’t get done nearly as much as I thought I would. Some things I was supposed to do: make progress on thesis—um, well, I went to the library and now have a huge stack of books to read!, finish a cappella arrangement—yeah…no; do essay for class due today—yup! Finished that…in the wee hours of the morning (>.<) Plus there were a whole bunch of fun things I meant to do, like finally finish decorating my room, go up Mt. Baldy, and visit to the Huntington Library, that I didn’t get to either.
All of this makes me wonder: what exactly did I do over break? Where did the time go? I mean, I did do some cool stuff. Firstly, my various volunteering things didn’t stop for fall break, so that covers Friday and Saturday morning as well as a bit of Monday afternoon. And I did have a good time baking pumpkin treats with my friends, playing Bananagrams and Taboo, going out to afternoon tea, exploring a vintage showcase, and seeing a Conan O’Brien taping. So yeah, that’s quite a bit. It was fun while it lasted. But now, probably for the fourth year in a row, I’ve repeated the same mistakes again and not accomplished all I meant to (like catching up on thesis, thesis, thesis!) over Fall Break.
How does this keep happening? Why do I keep thinking that I can approach Fall Break the same way and get different results? Why do I never start doing homework on Saturday so Monday and Tuesday aren’t horrible? Am I just insane? Probably not, unless most people I know are also insane (well, it’s always possible), since we all seem to feel the same way. After conversations with a couple friends, I think it comes down to two main things.
First, “Fall Break” is a bit of a misnomer. It is indeed a break, but a very short one. We make all sorts of plans for Fall Break and most people go away somewhere exciting. It’s halfway through the semester and we’ve built up all kinds of expectations about how GREAT it’s going to be or how we’re going to catch up on all our work ever. For most of us, this doesn’t happen. Why? Well, as I said, “Fall Break” is kind of inaccurate. It represents the autumn season amidst all the other seasonal breaks, but it definitely gets the short end of the stick. Spring Break is an entire week, Winter Break is a whole month, and Summer Break is three entire wonderful months off—plus you don’t usually have homework in winter or summer. Fall Break is really just a glorified four-day weekend, the same length as Thanksgiving, and if you’re unlucky like me you’ve got quite a bit to do. We put too much faith in Fall Break. It can only give back so much.
Second, we need a break. As I mentioned in my previous post, there didn’t used to be a Fall Break at all and students totally were burnt out by Thanksgiving. I probably couldn’t have forced myself to get a whole lot done on Friday or Saturday even if I had tried—that small voice in my head whining, “But it’s Fall Breeeeeaaaaaak” was just too strong. And perhaps I shouldn’t be beating myself up about it. It’s better to relax and enjoy relaxing than feel guilty about it later, right? Clearly we all needed some down time and some breathing space. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us.
So instead I’ll look forward to winter break. I’m sure I will get a LOT done over winter break….right?