Reset During Spring Break

When you think college spring break, you probably think Florida or Mexico or anywhere warm with sunny skies and sandy beaches. That sounds great, but after losing so much sleep and feeling exhausted after a busy winter quarter, I really just wanted to stay home and do absolutely nothing. So that’s what I did. Almost. Here’s a few things I did over the week to help me feel refreshed and ready for spring quarter.

1. Explore my neighborhood

I spend a lot of time on campus and get home when it’s dark out, plus the weather hasn’t been the greatest, so I took advantage of the sun and stayed home to explore the area around my apartment. One day I grabbed a dunkin refresher and walked towards Broadway and down Clark St and noted some of the cute cafes and shops I saw and want to visit with my friends. Another day I walked down the Diversey area all the way to campus passing Wrigley Field and looking at all the cute dogs! It felt really nice to get some fresh air and get some exercise in so I wouldn’t be sitting at home scrolling through my phone all day.

2. Go on late night drives

Later in the week, my friend who has a car invited me and a few other friends to go on a drive and look at the beautiful skyline. We drove down Lake Shore Drive and parked by Adler planetarium, sat on the steps overlooking the city, and had some deep talks. Although it was somewhat cold, it was nice to talk about old memories of how we all met. Another day we stopped by Montrose beach and then headed up to Evanston to get some boba and look at the huge houses while blasting our favorite songs! We also stopped at Lucky Strike and played a bunch of arcade games!

3. Facetime and catch up with friends, new and old

I also decided to call my friends and catch up with them since I never really have time during the quarter. I caught up with friends that go to DePaul but I don’t get to see that often and asked what their spring quarter will look like so that we could find time to hang out. I also called my friends from home but that was slightly more difficult since they go to different schools with different schedules so most of them were not on spring break and couldn’t talk for that long.

4. Sleep

The thing I was most excited for!!! During the quarter I usually stayed up pretty late on the weekdays doing homework or going out with friends on the weekends so I never got to sleep in. I took the week to stay up on those late night drives and sleep in till 3 PM sometimes, but make sure to sleep at a decent time the last two or three days to get my sleep schedule back on track for the spring quarter. Now I feel so much more refreshed!

5. Clean and restock

Because I know spring quarter is going to be pretty busy for me again and I won’t have much free time, I made sure to stop at Aldi and Target to get some groceries and cleaning supplies. I vacuumed and mopped my apartment and cleaned out my backpack and threw away all those worksheets I no longer needed. I made sure to restock my backpack with things like pencils, tissues, lip balm, Advil, granola bars, and other school essentials. Then I made some food and used the leftovers as meal prep for the upcoming week. Before I went to bed on Sunday night, I made sure to refill my water bottle and put it in the fridge and also pick out my outfit so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything in the morning and could get ready with ease.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable spring break. For me, it’s important to get some alone time and just chill at home doing nothing. This week was VERY needed and now I feel so ready to have a great spring quarter!