A rather hectic spring break was not relaxing

Ashley Barletta, News Editor

Spring Break: every college kid’s dream. At least, that’s the way it’s depicted in most television shows. They go to the beach, stay up all night, and party, party, party. If you have this luxury, I envy you. This is the least realistic experience of Spring Break I have ever seen and I’ve never even had a real spring break since last year it was “one random Wednesday.” Maybe two. I can’t remember. As unexciting as my hometown is, I am in need of a break. This semester has shown the highest rate of burnout I’ve seen since I’ve been here. We all need a break.

This is the first semester I’ve only had two midterms. Usually, it’s more than that. My classes are not as demanding in the workload itself, but the attention to detail in the small amount of work I’m given is what has made me so tired, especially in these last three weeks.It gets me every time when professors say they need a break. Maybe just don’t assign us as much stuff to do and you won’t have as much stuff to grade. At one point in the semester, I had three jobs on this campus: Rec Center Federal Work Study, English Department Federal Work Study, and Merciad News editor. I quit my job at the Rec because of how exhausted I was. So yes, I need a break. Will I get one? I’ve been saying this all week: no. I’ll be spending all of my break starting assignments for classes that aren’t due for another month because I certainly won’t have time for them when I get back from break. Plus, the weather will still be cold and I won’t be able to enjoy any actual sense of “spring.”

Still, if we had waited any longer to have Spring Break, I guarantee even less students than usual would show up to class because of how tired we all are. How much can we actually learn when we can hardly stay awake through one night’s worth of reading? Sometimes I honestly wonder if teachers have actually done the readings they assign to their students. Even if they know the material well already, we don’t. We certainly do not have 3 hours each night to devote to one class. And don’t give us more homework on the weekends just because we have longer to do it. The weekends should be a break, too, no matter how short.

I know this article ended up being more of a critique on the current school system and not on Spring Break itself. However, the hope of Spring Break is returning to school refreshed and ready to complete the end of the semester. That does not happen. I don’t often hear of people actually having a break during the times we are on break. That needs to change.

Let’s not work against each other on this; we all want to live in a world where we find satisfaction in our work, but we also want to live in a world where there is simply less work to be done. Why do people insist on making everything so much harder than it needs to be, myself included? We seem to have such a hard time letting go of the fact that we can’t all be stellar students or employee of the month.

We put ourselves through all of these hardships, often being more trouble than they’re worth. Break the cycle. In my mother’s words, “Do your best, that’s all you can do.” Do your best on assignments, and if you feel you’ve done that, turn it in and don’t worry about it. I think that’s something my generation really struggles with. We were all raised to think that we have to be the best and we have to do the work and do the work and do the work and did I mention do the work? It’s unrealistic. Thank goodness for the classes I’m in that focus more on what I’ve learned than some number or letter to write on a piece of paper. Before this article turns into a complete manifesto, I should end it here. I hope you enjoyed your Spring Break as much as possible, Lakers