Happy Monday, everyone, and welcome back to campus. I'm just as thrilled to see all of you as you are to be here, which is to say, not at all.
The Monday before break I went on a bit about my distaste for Daylight Saving Time, but promised you a more sugary column celebrating my amazing spring break upon my return. Well, that's simply more proof that even the best of us have to eat our words sometimes, because, at the moment, I'm not feeling sweet at all.
However, this is not to say I didn't have an incredible spring break - believe me, I did - but more because I am now feeling thoroughly spring broken. I fled Tufts last Friday to escape from a crazy schedule and mountains of stress, thinking a week of sunny, Puerto Rican R&R would leave me refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of the semester. Seems pretty reasonable, doesn't it? Turns out it's one of those things that's better in theory than in practice. Here I am at Tufts mid-Sunday afternoon, and I'm feeling pretty unmotivated, even to write this column! You see, spring break was just this little taste of summer, happiness and no stress. Now that we've all realized what it's like to be truly happy, how can we come back to school?
Okay, now that I've thoroughly depressed myself and anyone else who has managed to make it this far through this little piece of doom and gloom, I'll try to turn this column around. Optimism is the name of the game, right? So now I'll try to think of reasons that I'm happy to be at school. (Cut me some slack; this could take some time and more mental energy than I've expended the entire last week).
Let's see. First off, I can now shower with hot water. That's a plus! The hotel I stayed at over break, although located on the beach, unfortunately did not supply this particular amenity. As a result, I am probably going to kick ass at yoga this week, because I've become an absolute pro at holding a gravity-defying back bend for the full time it takes to shampoo (and condition) my hair, in order to ensure that the freezing stream of water hit only my head and no part of my skin.
There's also the fact that I can now eat something besides sugarless cornflakes for breakfast - and what's more - I can actually eat as much as I want! Three full meals a day! On vacation, my friends and I tried to save money by skipping lunch whenever possible, eating only the cardboard breakfast our hotel provided and generally eating the barest minimum to survive. Healthy? Not particularly. Cost-effective? Most definitely.
What else? (Can you tell I'm struggling?) Well, I definitely won't miss the mosquitos. And I can now step outside without SPF 30 - whereas if I tried to pull that down south, my Irish skin would protest by immediately turning a fabulous shade of fire truck red, which is not exactly in vogue right now.
That's all I've got. Spring break was just so awesome, I can't think of anything else bad to write about (and that's saying something, coming from yours truly). And in the aftermath, sitting here looking at all the work I've got to catch up on and the miles of running I'm behind on, I'm feeling pretty spring broken. But don't get me wrong - I'm not saying spring break shouldn't have happened; I'm just saying I'm counting down the days until spring break 2015. See you then!
Lex Erath is a sophomore majoring in economics. She can be reached at Alexandra.Erath@tufts.edu.
