By Esther Kim ‘22
Staff Writer
I always imagine blue skies and sandy beaches when people talk about “Spring Break.” People post plenty of swimsuit pictures and a plethora of parties on their Instagram feed. Especially in Lake Forest, spring is a time where beautiful slush litters the ground. I always eagerly wait for the flood of blurry Snapchat videos and the slurred screeches of celebration to fill my room. The duck face is definitely on-trend for this season, as it apparently has been since 2010. And don’t get me started on the neon glow of fake tans—I mean, I see it during spring break more than I see the rays of UV radiation.
I’m not sure if the word “break” is something well known to anyone at Lake Forest College, other than as half of the word “breakdown.” For those of us who don’t know, the word is used to describe a period of rest. It sounds too good to be true, almost as if it were a whimsical daydream.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to be trapped in a car with too many people, finish seven days of homework in one night, and get dragged to family dinners where everyone argues politics? Or better yet, sitting alone in the Student Center, rapidly finishing six essays.
One week is really the perfect amount of time to replenish people of one semester’s worth of stress. Enough time to forget about crippling student debt and worries about majors and minors.
Personally, I’m very excited to have a week-long existential crisis about the direction of life, free will, and the concept of death.
Spring break is meant to give us all something rarely found in college life—something called “free time.”
This, of course, does not happen. Rather, professors attempt to build a week’s worth of work around break, either assigning big assignments like projects, essays, presentations, for the week before spring break, or the week after. How can we truly make use of our so-called break if we spend it studying for the midterms waiting for us when we return?
The prospect of “free time” is so rarely found that when one opportunity presents itself, we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. Every year, I create a checklist: do all my homework on the first day, eat three, well-balanced meals, and run three miles everyday, while simultaneously drinking enough water, and sleeping exactly eight hours per night.
But of course, the minute classes let out, I’m always tempted to crawl into my bed and turn my brain off for a while.
I think that “Spring Break” is a misnomer for instant meals and guilty indulgence into procrastination, laziness, and other vices, while maintaining the social media image of someone who is having the time of their life, like fully-actualized human beings. But we all know for a fact that things are not all that great. Most of us will probably be lounging around in our sweats, sleeping much more than we should, and pigging out on junk food.
The expectations of spring break are so astronomically high, that some of us are missing that Polar Vortex. At least then no one expected us to do anything more than nap and order Uber Eats.
Esther Kim can be reached at kimed@mx.lakeforest.edu.
