For many major holidays, a break of at least a few days is provided, giving students a chance to leave campus, celebrate and/or see their families.  However, for the students who typically celebrate Easter, this opportunity is not given.Many students aren’t used to being away for the holidays and may not know how to make the most of this weekend while remaining at UCLA.

For more religious students, one obvious necessity is to take the time to attend an Easter church service and celebrate the spiritual aspect of the holiday.  Remembering why it all began may help you feel closer to home and to a higher power.

If, like meyou aren’t super religious, your Easter traditions may be much different. Instead of church and prayer, you probably think of bunnies and chocolate. If this is the case, there are also many ways to bring the Easter spirit to campus.

No matter how you choose to celebrate Easter (and even if you don’t) it’s easy to make campus feel just like you’re home for the holidays.

You can volunteer to start the Easter weekend on a high note. Spend the Saturday before Easter helping with Bruin Day. You can show off your room, lead tours, or simply talk to prospective UCLA students.  Help these students understand why UCLA is so amazing and, in the process, remind yourself of how lucky you are to go here. 

Speaking of how lucky you re to go to UCLA, let’s take a moment to realize how beautiful this campus is. Take advantage of the nice weather and great views and have an Easter picnic with your friends. While you’re at school, your friends are like your chosen family. You spend all your time with them and bicker with them and love them, so why not spend holidays together? Royce quad, sunken gardens, sculpture garden – take your pick. Any of these amazing locations would make for an awesome location.

After a nice lunch, why not have an Easter egg hunt or dye eggs right on campus? Let’s face it, we all love this part of Easter no matter how old we get.  So run down to Target and buy some of those plastic eggs and fill them with candy, coins, whatever. Place the eggs around your picnic spot and let the hunt begin! Just make sure to get them all, littering is a big no, no.

This weekend may very well be one of the last semi-free weekends you will have this year before the stress of midterms and finals sinks in. Take advantage of it!  Sitting in your room alone wallowing about not being with family will only make you sadder and less productive. Allow yourself to do something fun with friends and you’ll be much more willing to work hard and power through the rest of the school year.

Oh, and don’t forget to call home. As much as you miss your family, they’ll be missing you even more.

image from: http://www.assaggiosteria.com/