Real Life Doesn't Have a Spring Break(And You Don't Have To Be Depressed About It!)

Spring Break!

Except, real life doesn't have a spring break, does it? I'm rapidly coming to terms with that, and that since I'm most probably taking an indefinite break from academia I'm probably not going to get another "spring break" any time soon.

But you know what? I'm okay with that.

First of all, in order to give you guys some eye candy to break up the monotony of my words, I googled the term "spring break". If I was pubescent boy I would have been very, very pleased. Eye candy, indeed.

Yay. Softcore porn. Pass the tissues, please.

...*Cough* Not my idea of a good spring break. In fact, today is my last day of my own "spring break". I asked off a handful of days from both my jobs because I originally planned to go to Austin, but instead I took the thrifty way to go and stayed home. I had good friends in from out of town who I don't get to see often. We stayed in and played video games pretty much the whole time. The second evening we tired of lounging around all day and we walked down the street to a friend's apartment...to play Super Smash Bros. [Insert nostalgic feeling here.] We're an easy bunch. Just give us internet connection and we're entertained. But it was a good visit with actual human interaction that wasn't a sales transaction at one of my jobs. I enjoyed it very much. Early mornings, late nights, lots of coffee and good conversation. Many laughs were had, too. These are the days I live for. As the Fifth Doctor said in the Earthshock episode: “For some people, small, beautiful events are what life is all about.”

Here's something you have to know about me. Though I do love going out and roaming the town, having a drink and listening to a local band at Thirsty's or Tequila Rok. I love getting dressed up and going places. But my true idea of a "real good time"? Sharing a cup of coffee or tea outside on the porch or around the coffee table with those I hold dear. Knocking back some cold ones in the evening watching a favorite TV show and playfully discussing if there's a conspiracy theory behind it. A small gathering of tipsy friends playing Cards Against Humanity(Have you played that game? Seriously, look it up right now, I'll wait).

Just a sample, read the black card, and insert the bottom white card of each pair into the first blank, and the top white card into the bottom blank. So it would read: "Honey I have a new role-play I want to try tonight! You can be Hulk Hogan, and I'll be peeing a little bit."

That was one of the rounds played the other night, and those were the top two choices. In that game everyone's politically correct um rude as hell an asshole, and we're a  freaking hilarious bunch of assholes.

Anyways, that's my idea of a good time. Not that my partying days are over. Like I said, give me half an hour's notice that We Were Wolves is in town, and you know I'll be front and center rocking out drunk on Jack&Cokes and partying the night away.  And hold on, this post is supposed to be about spring break and how real life doesn't have one...damn tangents.

Spring break was originally designed to give kids in school a break(obviously). For college kids, it was a chance for them to get wasted every day guilt-free and not worry about a test the next morning. In my experience of college, and especially the one and a half semesters of grad school I've had, its more of a week to study for midterms and get in some extra hours at your dead-end job so you can buy more adderall. Everyone desperately looks forward to it, to each little break one gets from the depressingly heavy course load, whether it be Winter, Spring, Summer, or the measly two days off for Thanksgiving. Two days for a turkey coma to set in, the weekend to study for finals, and back to the grindstone it is, and don't forget to be thankful! 

Surprise! Real-world adults don't get these scheduled breaks, apparently. 9-5 every day, weekends off if you're lucky. Or if you work in retail or the service industry, its more like a day off during the week, two tops, and long, varying shifts on the weekends, because you're there to serve everyone who does have the weekend off. Vacation time is few and far between, if you get vacation time. Sounds depressing doesn't it? 

All the pretty colors! Maybe this will get me through one more day of waiting tables and writing papers...

It doesn't have to be. The whole point of this post boils down to these next two sentences. (Big pressure now) 

Spend your time wisely and, most importantly, by doing what fulfills you and makes you happy. You can control your time and therefore your happiness.

Simple as that. Give yourself a purpose in life if you wish, or just enjoy where you are. If you have to work harder and longer hours to get to a position where you don't have to, do that. But also don't sacrifice your present happiness and well-being for that castle in the sky of more time off to spend doing X later. You can save up and work towards a better position while enjoying your life right now. Like I said in part one of The "Grown-Up Question", later is now. Just because you're working full time, or you're at school full time and working part-time, whatever your lot in life, that does NOT mean you can't enjoy yourself. It does NOT mean you can't cultivate a hobby or your personal life. It does NOT mean you have a free pass to complain about how busy you are or just be tired all the time. I know just as well as the next person how tiring and overworked one can be. That isn't healthy, and everyone needs to slow it down a notch, in my opinion. But the point I'm trying to make is that you can choose your attitude, no matter what you're experiencing. Trust me, working full time and going to school full time the past few months exhausted me. I've been really sick, and for about a year now I've been on the verge of a complete mental break down, if I haven't already experienced it. I began to have anxiety and panic attacks regularly.

But you know what? I had the power to change that. I started going back to therapy regularly(when I had the time). I began to spend more time around others that made me laugh and smile, focusing on the good. I cut out the negative people in my life. I try to remember to smile and focus on the joy, the little things. I am definitely still a work in progress, and will probably always be. But when I realized that I can still make my own decisions about my life, and I can decide to be happy no matter what situation I'm in, it doesn't matter if I get a long break to rest up for the next long stretch of toil and drudgery. I can give myself a break to do whatever I please in the little hours that I do have off. I no longer have to look months ahead of time for a break. I can have one every evening or morning I have off. And I don't have to be negative about all of this either. I am 23 years old, this is my time to be happy and to choose where I'm going in life. I don't want to look back on this and remember being miserable. I'm going to make the most of my life, every hour of every day. Not just during spring break.

I stumbled upon this quote years ago and it's stuck with me since. I feel like it's fitting for today's post.

"Time=Life. Waste your time, waste your life. Master your time, master your life." - Alan Lakein

Enjoy your day, make the most of it doing whatever you wish, and keep your head up. This is your life. It isn't easy, and it won't be easy. But you can make of it whatever you dream to make it, and if you do it with a smile on your face, it'll make it that much more enjoyable.

Until next time, keep smiling!