Opinion: Fall Break is Good; It Can Be Better

Fall colors outline the Quad during this time of year. A restful fall break was held on Monday and Tuesday, but if break was made longer it could serve Albion students even better (Photo by Liam Rappleye).

I’m not the most energetic person you’ll ever meet. I look around me and I see everyone else achieving their goals. Meanwhile, I’m trapped in the corner of the room, struggling to figure out what goals I even have. The only time I feel a surge of energy and productivity is at the absolute last minute. 

It’s not how I like doing things, but it’s the only way I’ve been able to do things at all. It feels like my brain is just not wired like that of those around me. 

The last day of fall break was Tuesday. When I got back to campus, it was Wednesday morning at 2 AM. I hit the mattress and I didn’t come to until 11 in the morning. By the time my afternoon class started, I was feeling, as expected, sluggish and struggling to focus in class. I expected to be feeling similarly, if not worse, come Thursday.

It turns out that I miscalculated. Before I even got to class, I was feeling different. I had come across a cache of energy and I began putting it to immediate use. I began working on tasks that I would normally wait until Friday to get started. I began sending out emails. I was getting my work done.

This might not seem like something special to most people, but to me, this feels important. For the first time this semester, I had enough energy to make it through the entire day without crashing and falling asleep in the middle of class. I’m willing to say that fall break contributed to that. 

My week was cut in half. Normally, the energy I would spend on Monday and Tuesday was instead spent on Wednesday and Thursday. A short week paired with a break that lasted almost as many days to rest was an absolute blessing. 

Recognizing that though, I can’t help but wish that it had been a bit longer. I can only imagine how refreshing it would have been to have had more time. If I’d been able to have a week, for instance, I could at least have five days to relax – time to rest and recharge my batteries. The other two would be reserved just for travel plans. 

More than anything, I’m worried that I’m going to end up exhausted soon. I’m enjoying this burst of energy that fall break gave me, and I don’t want it to end. I finally feel like a somewhat normal person. I feel like I can finally set my own goals and have the energy to accomplish them. If I could keep my energy up with this level of consistency, I would eternally be grateful. Sadly, I feel that this sudden post-fall-break surge is just that: something brief and sudden, easily spent within the next day.

About Juan G. Rodriguez 45 Articles
Juan G. Rodriguez is a senior sharing his time between Dallas and East Texas. He is majoring in English and minoring in Political Science. As an individual with two pencil leads in his left knee, writing seems to be the only career that Juan is capable of. Contact Juan via jgr13@albion.edu.

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