Who says you can't have a good time on break unless you have a vacation?

It seems that most college students run off to distant spots of the globe, hoping to get away from the books for a week's worth of celebrating, merry making, and relaxing. It's a fantastic idea. At this time of year, everyone's ready for a break of some sort - to clear your head, refresh your spirits, wind down and gear up for the second half of the semester... and the rest of midterms. Sometimes it's even nice just to get caught up on the rest of life (reading for class, reading for pleasure, laundry, sleep, a regular eating schedule, the essentials). So the distant beach and commercial venues that beckon: come have a good time with friends, spend your money, sleep away the afternoon... seem like a great break.

Personally, I'd much rather drive the five hours down the interstate and chill out at home for the week. Yes, more than the vacation where you're almost expected to interact with lots of friends and people you've never met (classic example: Mardi Gras) and take advantage of everything you've spent good money to enjoy (taste the flavors, soak up the sights). No thank you, I want to sit down to a familiar meal provided with love and thought from my parents, enjoy a familiar couch cushion or bed or comforting embrace from my brother, and leisure about the house in my PJs as I catch up on local news and magazines from the past two months. When there's several days during the week where you're the only one at home for a few hours, you have the chance to reflect on your own thoughts for once, and not expected to perform under the pressure of the classroom, where the reflection is mostly on the professor's lecture or the textbook's teachings... rushed and constrained to say the least. Even better, the location is perfect for truly relaxing. For one thing, you're already familiar and comfortable with your settings, there's not much new to explore (that you don't figure out in the first day, which is just a part of adjusting to being home) and there's little reason to feel obligated to take full advantage of your surroundings. Well, with the exception of taking advantage of the home-cooked food, veg in front of the TV for the first time since Christmas, and our fun supply of construction paper and art supplies...

Don't think that I'm not a fan of an awesome vacation. But I just think there's some more opportune times to take a real 'vacation' and the middle of the semester is not one of them for me. I prefer to consider this an overstuffed weekend that allows your brain to just go into sleep mode for a few days and recharge. They don't call it 'break' for nothing! And I'm having a good break :-)

How can it be that an entire half of a semester has simply flown by and left me standing there wondering where it all went? Amazingly, it's Spring Break and I'm left gasping for air and ready for a one-week vacation from the roller coaster. It seems that everyone will agree that it's about time we got to the break, too. I'm thinking this will be the perfect recharge for campus... allowing people to come back and enjoy renewed strength and a refreshed look at life (not droopy like the dining experience at College and not stagnant like the Crim Dell...) Somehow the idea of seven blissful days in familiar territory where I can snuggle up to a warm couch and cozy food and loving arms of family is just the perfect medicine.

I have learned a lot in one month's time... plenty about classwork and balance... a lot more about life and living in the world. After all, we enjoy a liberal arts education and I'm taking full advantage of that opportunity these four years: in and outside the classroom! Not as much inside as I would like, but when life starts to take over, it's sometimes very difficult to resist. I feel refreshed already just from completing this week - drained, yes - but content to be finished. Now I just need to find my way home tomorrow afternoon... one step at a time. First through the final moments in Williamsburg, then on to Richmond as I drop off a friend, and to Charlottesville to visit family before I arrive at the final destination of the sleepy mountains in Southwestern Virginia. The sleepy Valley and Ridge, where the trees are only beginning to wake up from the long winter's edge (even with the prospect of a ferocious winter storm later in the weekend), and the river still runs quick and cold. Jack Frost with his icy breath still rules the twilight of morning and the Moon with her frosty glow still rules the twilight of evening.

New warmth will come quiet in the sunshine as the blooms start to emerge and the birds herald the beginning of spring. Renewal and rebirth are soon to be at hand. The sunshine beckons...