This previous winter break, I decided to take a break from a lot of the distractions in my life while getting in touch with a few neglected hobbies that I have found myself wanting to jump back into. I did this for a variety of reasons. First, I find myself, like many others, in the throes of a social media dependence and my mind had come to be accustomed to the checking of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter any off beat moment in my life. I also found that I had grown socially tired in my life and needed some sort of isolation over break. With that, my break was one of reorienting myself both emotionally and mentally. In retrospect, I feel that I got the rest I needed to rocket myself into this next semester.

My last semester was mired with emotional and physical problems throughout. I found myself growing more and more detached from people I would have regularly loved to be around. There was a lot of internal-turmoil I had in the realms of self-esteem and regret. I found I had to get away and a lot of the things happening in the world really just depressed me and made me feel dry. As someone who thrives off of social interaction last semester was one where the wheels came off a little bit.

However, this break from everything, although helpful, left me feeling a tiny bit guilty for my actions. I definitely thought things like “These people are depending on my presence” or “I really should post something,” but the more I thought these thoughts the more I dreaded jumping right back in.

A think a lot of the, in retrospect, good effect for me but a source for a lot of the debate within my person was that I kind of did it without warning. Therefore, no one knew I was stepping away from The Odyssey for a couple weeks and no one knew that I was going to vanish in a way except for a select things and people I still stayed in touch with.

Overall I feel like this decision was good. I ended up really enjoying my break. As someone who thrives off of a work/play balance, I feel like I was able to accomplish enough but not too much to the point where I felt drawn out. I feel bad for jumping away in the manner I did; however, I felt over break I was truly present at home and with friends and family. My reliance on my phone and the internet is slowly evolving, but in a good way as I feel no need to be apart of it when I hit the slow parts of the day. All dependant routine is now gone within in me and it is a freeing feeling. So I leave you with this: If you are feeling drawn out and too uneasy to keep up with many of your responsibilities to the point where you dread even looking at them. Take a break, look around for a while, and breathe.