Spring break.

It’s the time of year college students like to take part in the age-old tradition of kicking back, relaxing, and traveling somewhere south to warm weather. While there, they party, tan, go to the beach, and hang out with friends. Memories are always made and the pictures are even better.

Spring break is so loved, how could you not go anywhere?

This is what I ask myself.

While most college students chose to go “wild” this year, I chose to go “domestic”-- I house sat.

Yeah, it was probably poor planning on my part, but I’m a broke college student. Money is a pretty important factor on why I didn’t go anywhere. Traveling, as much as I love to do it, costs a lot of money. What little I make with part-time jobs goes for gas in my car and into a savings account for a trip to perform at Carnegie Hall this summer. So when I was asked to stay in a house by myself for a week while simultaneously watching a dog and two cats for money, I was pretty ecstatic. Plus, I needed to stay home and get observation hours in a middle school classroom for one of my classes, and I needed to make up a private piano lesson. So staying home seemed like the better option.

Throughout this last week, I couldn’t help but notice the many parallels between a “fun” spring break and my self-imposed “boring” spring break. While the people I am house-sitting for are off where the climate is warm and tropical, I sit in their freezing home not realizing that their furnace has shut off. They wear bathing suits and shorts while I sit bundled up in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, fuzzy socks, three blankets, and a winter coat. As they hike around and explore Costa Rica, I walk the dog around the winding neighborhood in 68-mile-an-hour winds (windburn is a real thing, and, yes, Michigan had some record-breaking winds this week). My friends are packing six-plus people into a hotel room in the south while I am up padding around a cavernous house by myself back here up north. Other college kids are getting crazy on the beaches. I am sitting in a classroom observing middle schoolers going absolutely nuts. And speaking of beaches, while my fellow college students are making sand castles and burying each other in the sand, I am sifting cat poop out of the litter box and cleaning dog poop off the carpet.

What was I thinking?!

Oh well. My spring break this year may not be sailing along as spring breaks traditionally do, but at least I played a small role in helping another family have a great vacation without having to send their pets to a kennel. And I certainly didn’t get into any trouble.

But you better believe I’m already planning for next year…something with ocean breezes, sunshine, friends and no litter boxes!