Although a lot of college students have tickets to ride (get it?) to someplace new or exciting for spring break, I have always enjoyed going back home for a week and enjoying my time off with my family. Of course, if you love traveling and you want to spend your spring break exploring and roaming the Earth, I fully support that. If you want to spend your spring break with friends or family, that's totally okay too. It's up to you how to spend the short while you have away from all the responsibilities and stress that come with school. (Unless you prefer to spend your break on campus and study or work throughout your time off. You do you. Seriously.)
I've always strongly benefitted from going back home over my spring break. Here are six of the best things, in my opinion, about going home for spring break:
1. Sleeping in Your Own Bed
This simply cannot be stressed enough. Sleeping in your own bed is like sleeping on a cloud made of your favorite flavor of cotton candy floating through the sky on the wings of angels. (Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but am I wrong?)
My mattress at home isn't even that great. In fact, it's terrible. It's old, creaky, and gives me no back support - AND I LOVE IT. Compared to my mattress at school, it's so flexible and forgiving. Not to mention that when I'm home, I have a dog that sleeps in my bed with me (at night and during naps), so that makes it a thousand times better by default.
2. Your Fur Family
Every time arrive at home after a long drive and walk through my front door, my animals are right there waiting for me. They come into the kitchen (where our door is at) curious at first and a little unsure if it's actually me, and then they sprint over and jump all over me, shaking with excitement. My cat, Hemingway, walks in, wanting to see what all the commotion is about, and patiently waits for my dogs to die down so he can come over and let me hold him. My sister's cat strolls in for a quick "Hello!" before she runs off to hide for the rest of the night.
Seeing how excited your animals are to see you is one of the best feelings in the entire world. Not to mention you get to snuggle with them on the couch, play fetch with them, share your food with them, spoil them with treats, and go for walks or take naps together. That's not something you get to do every day.
3. Home-Cooked Meals
Do I even need an explanation for this one? I don't think my cafeteria's food is really that bad (in fact, I think it's rather good), but a home-cooked, made-with-love meal surpasses any mass-produced food. Most times, you don't even have to make the food yourself. Someone else is always willing to cook you up whatever you want because they don't get to do it very often, and many times, they do it before you can even ask. It's a truly beautiful thing.
4. Your Movie Collection
Perhaps many of you take your entire movie collection with you to school (props for that, seriously), but I don't have that much room in my dorm even though I have it to myself. I can take at max maybe 20 movies with me, so I always end up having that moment of regret when a film I want to watch is one of those I left at home. "I would love to watch The Proposal! Oh.... I guess I didn't bring it with me. Netflix it is."
So when I'm home, I watch all of the movies I've been craving to see but haven't had access to. (Netflix doesn't have everything, as much as I'd like it to.) I can even watch VCR tapes if I want to! Toy Story, The Tigger Movie, Mulan... I can't play VCR tapes on my Xbox at school, now, can I?
5. Free Laundry
When I know I have a break coming up, I make my clothes stretch as long as they possibly can so I don't have to wash them before I can do my laundry for free at home. I have to pay with quarters at school.... quarters. The only payment I have to make in order to do my laundry at home is in love and offers to add my family's laundry to my pile to eliminate excess loads.
Plus, my family will often help me fold my laundry when it's done and my mother almost always insists on ironing my nice clothes (even when I remind her I never do because I don't even have an iron at school).
6. Bonding Time With Your Family
There's something to be said for the warm fuzzies you get when you're sitting in the living room with your family, chatting away about anything and everything, trying to get caught up on each other's lives. There's something to be said for planning a movie night, requiring everyone plans their showers and changing into pajamas and making snacks ahead of time so we don't stay up too late. I absolutely love my family and I enjoy spending the time with them that I have over break because I, like many of you, miss them immensely when I'm at school.
My family is a huge part of my identity and I don't know what I'd do without them. When I'm home, I feel like a complete person again. It feels like I never even left for school when we joke at the dinner table or play board games.
I wouldn't trade my time at home over spring break for anything. Traveling would be nice, working would be nice, but for me, going home and being with my family is the best, most relaxing break I could have.
