What is it about being on spring break that makes people say we need to drop everything that we're doing and just do nothing?

Don't get me wrong, I think doing nothing is great. In fact, I love doing nothing, but I am so tired of people harping on me during spring break for lifting a finger. It's my spring break, and if I want to continue working towards my goals, I'm allowed to.

Of course you shouldn't be killing yourself, either; chances are that during break (unless your professors are terrible and give you work or an exam right after) you have nothing to do for school, so that takes a lot off of your plate. You should treat yourself. You should go on vacation if you can. You should spend time with your family and friends. You should sleep in some. But you SHOULDN'T just quit everything.

That's how the second half of the semester kills you - when you completely check out on spring break. Of course, you deserve a break and you should take one, but also take the time to get things done that need to be done. If I have free time and I'm bored, I go in to my parents work for a few hours to help out and get service hours. It's working towards my graduation requirement, and I do it on my time. I can do an hour or I can do four hours if I want, it's up to what I feel like doing. If you know you're about to have a whole huge workload when you come back from break, DON'T JUST IGNORE IT. You don't have to get started on it during break, but take an hour and write yourself a game plan for when you get back - it'll help keep you accountable so that you won't be stuck in the post-spring break slump as soon as you get back to school.

I have always felt so annoyed when people told me I shouldn't be doing something on my spring break.

"You shouldn't get up early - it's spring break!"

Well, I wanted to have something to wake up for so I decided to meet a friend for coffee one morning.

"You shouldn't be doing work."

Sometimes, I have work that I can't avoid. It doesn't mean I'm going to devote all of my time to it, but at least I won't be completely pushing it under the rug to have to deal with it all at once when I get back.

"Why aren't you at home? If I was you, I'd be catching up on all my Netflix shows."

I know most people would love to sit in front of a TV all day after midterms, but personally, I could only do it for a few hours before I would need some kind of human interaction. Everyone's different, though; if that's what relaxes you, then you definitely should make time for that!

At the end of the day, I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't enjoy your break or that you need to work during it at all. I just personally like to still be able to get things done, and it bothers me that people seem to shame me for not relaxing in the way they'd like. I am relaxing. I'm sleeping in, I'm spending time with loved ones, I'm watching TV, but I'm also just making sure that I don't have culture shock as soon as my work load comes back.