As my first winter break comes to an end and the upcoming spring semester looms closer, I thought I would look back on everything I accomplished (and wished I did) over break.

1) Survived Christmas with my family

Being Italian means there is a big Christmas party on Christmas Eve with the whole family. I managed to juggle playing two masses and evading all the prying questions about college from my various family members. For all the chaos of the holidays, I did enjoy spending time, albeit not as much as I would have liked, with my family.

2) Celebrated 2017 arriving with my best friend, Nat

A New Year's Eve party and a sleepover was my way of ushering in 2017. I saw all of my neighbors and showed Nat what it was like to grow up on Travener. I realized just how much actually happened in my life in 2016 - graduating high school, my semester of college, turning 18 - and made a cheesy resolution for the new year.

3) Spent any free time I had at my church

I played several masses. I reverted back to a role of catechist for a high school faith formation class. I made casserole dishes for Our Daily Bread. I went on a shopping adventure all over Frederick (and eventually Tyson's Corner) with the youth director to buy gifts of the gift tag tree at the church. I went to college kid-centered events, like a weekly Tuesday night dinner, a sing-along of The Prince of Egypt, and a mind-twisting viewing of The Prestige. I saw my old church friends and made new ones, and finally found peace that my beloved peer ministry program was in good hands with the new arrivals of peer ministers.

4) Saw all of my friends from Frederick

It took two weeks but I saw all of my friends - from my old high school, from church and from my street. I went to Noodles & Company three times in one week in order to see and spend time with my friends. I saw a wide range of movies with them. I went ice skating and managed to not fall at all then continued the SJCP tradition of going to IHOP after an event. I marathoned shows a movie series with them. I finally got my friend to watch all the Star Wars movies. But my favorite of all, I just sat around and spent time with them.

5) Visited my old high school

I finally saw all of my previous teachers, interrupted some of their classes and showed all of them the Odyssey so they could read all the things I've written about the school and how it prepared me for college. I lounged in the front office like I used to as a senior, told my old college counselor all about Washington College and how it was the right choice and surprised all of my friends there.

6) Bonded with my sister

We got closer over break. The fights quickly faded into nonexistence once we made a deal to show each other something new whether it was a show, movie, game, restaurant, etc. I became obsessed with her two favorite anime and watched both of them in their entirety. In return, I showed her the wonders of Columbia Mall and Chipotle.

7) Wrote this Odyssey article

I did not do as much writing as I initially planned to over break, but i got this article done and that's a win!

8) And, sat around looking at the list of all the things I had to accomplish while actually accomplishing none of them

I could make plans al I wanted for over break, but I knew that all of them would not be accomplished, not even close. I'll just have to move the to-do list until spring break.

For everything I did manage to do over break, there is an equal or greater amount of things that I did not get to over break. For every friend I saw, there are several unread books. Every car ride to church, another two shows to my Netflix list that I made no progress on. Every YouTube or anime video watched, my textbooks still waiting to be ordered. But that's okay, because it might not have been the winter break I planned in my head, but it is the winter break I had and I enjoyed every minute of it.