For those of you who don't know much about rowing, it may come to a surprise to you to find out that we don't get time off for spring break. In fact, we practice twice a day during spring break. Some teams travel to other states or club and make a trip out of it, but my team stays in town to save money. Spring break is right before our big races start happening, so unfortunately we are unable to take the time off. You may be thinking why in the world would rowers give up spring break, and my answer to that is I have no clue, we are completely insane people. Here are a few thoughts we have leading up to and throughout the week.
1. Why am I doing this?
When we are with the few non-rowing friends we have (mostly the people who are injured and can't currently row) and we hear them planning trips to the Keys, Denver or even just getting to go home, we definitely question why in the world we chose to stay.
2. I can't wait for spring break!
Once we remember why we want to do this, (we want to win races and be the best we can be) we are actually kind of excited about spring break. We don't have classes which is a plus, and we do plan fun little activities in between and after the practices.
3. We run this town!
We hold practice in Gainesville, which means by Sunday night all the college students are gone. This also means the entire town is gone, and there is no one on campus. It is a weird but really cool feeling to walk around an empty campus.
4. Ok, I guess I am doing this.
We wake up early Monday morning and question all our life choices up to this point. Our non-rowing friends are still sleeping or maybe waking up to hop on planes, but we throw on some clothes and head out the door to practice.
5. Are we too close?
By day 2 we all live together. It gets lonely staying in empty dorms or apartments, so a lot of us will move in with each other for the week. We have put 5 people on two pushed together twin sized dorm beds, which is when we begin to question if we are too close, and the answer is yes, we are.
6. All I want to do is sleep!
Practicing twice a day is exhausting. The Florida sun is extremely draining, plus the first couple nights we stayed up late watching Netflix and trying to pretend we were having a Spring Break.
7. The fish have their own life under us.
Sometime between day 3 and 4 we start having existential crises. My roommate/bestie Mel had the above thought during an 80 minute piece on day 4. The coxswains and rowers start going insane, but fortunately we are nearing the end of the week.
8. We ARE definitely way too close!
By day 4 we start slightly hating each other. We have had no outside contact in 4 days, and now our teammates quirks are driving us crazy. We get a little more impatient with our teammates, and they definitely get a little more impatient with us.
9. Friday is finally here!
When Friday rolls up we are excited to finish of Spring Break practices. We get Friday afternoon and Saturday off, which means we get to have a mini vacation!
10. I wouldn't want to spend Spring Break any other way!
Once we finally get some sleep and get to go home, we realize that though practicing twice a day was tough, we are now stronger than we were when we started, and it was worth it.
