Let me start with this. Break was amazing; granted Brown University has one of the longer winter breaks (mine is from December 13th to January 20th) but I feel like anything around a month is great. Some people wish they could go back after the first week, that was actually me. My family moved to New York a bit before break which resulted in my loss of social life. Netflix was left to be my sole company — not even my netflix either, it was borrowed from a friend. For two weeks I trained in becoming one with the sloth. Fourteen hours of netflix a day for two weeks. I was torn at the end of my crusade; should I have felt accomplished or utterly disgusted with myself? This is what college students do on break right? Being a restless person though, I was convinced that I could not sustain such a life; my ambitions wanted more out of my break.
Thankfully enough, my family made a trip back to Grove City over New Year’s and I was able to visit friends. We stayed in our old house which had not been sold yet. It was a little sad hearing the echo of footsteps in an empty house, especially in my own room, but it reminded me of my transition into my first semester of college and how far I’ve come since then. A feeling of accomplishment with the accompanied thought, “I made it,” swept over me and I no longer minded the emptiness of the house.
Accompanying the emptiness of the rooms was the lack of furniture and thus the lack of beds. Sleeping on the floor isn’t as bad as so many people think it is; maybe I just think that because I’ve done it so many times though. Beyond the lack of furniture, I found my parting with internet to be quite difficult. For me, internet is vital in the winter; it’s the only thing that keeps me from going into hibernation, but it seems I made it out okay some way or another. I spent each day of the week visit lounging around at friend’s houses, probably the most fun I’ve had in any given week this year. The one nice thing about moving is that when you come back, the people who actually cared about you will contact you with a flurry of invites making for a warm welcome back. I just about spent each meal with a different family. Now I’m back in New York City. The city really does feel lonelier when you don’t know anyone. In the meantime, I’ve gone back to playing the piano and working on my virtuoso arpeggios; I also took up archery and set a small target range in my parking garage. Last but not least, I took a week to learn Java for my software engineering class next semester. It feels great to be productive doing things I want to do.
That’s pretty much it; I just wanted to tell you guys about my break. The only advice I can offer is to do what you want to do over break and enjoy it. A month is a lot of time; don’t regret how you spend it. Thanks for reading!