As much I love school and learning, it can be exhausting. It always feels good to turn things in or finish applications, but there’s always one waiting for you just around the corner. It seems to be an endless cycle, so it’s always nice to relax when given the chance.

I’m the sort of person that likes to be on top of things, almost to a ridiculous degree. I’m the person that aims to hand in a Spanish projects two weeks early (I’m 100% finishing over fall break) or knocks out the first draft of her first Core paper a week before it’s due. Crazy, right?

There is a method to this madness. I’d much rather be done with something than have it lurking, especially if I know I have time I could be using to work on it when I am doing something else (*cough cough* watching episodes of Suspicious Partner on Viki).

So, what did I do over fall break?

I worked on assignments to ease back into school post-break, but don’t get me wrong, I planned to relax to the max as well. A trip to the Scripps pool, walking to Trader Joe’s for some exercise and groceries, catching up on my creative writing on Wattpad, reading the cheesy teen books I got from the public library in the Village, sleeping (lots!), and watching some shows.

For me, the biggest refresh part of my weekend was the creative writing. As long as I can remember, I’ve been putting pen to paper, whether in the form of a fuzzy dog diary, a Hunger Games journal, a angsty teen WordPress blog, a scribble diary (My handwriting does tend to look like scribbles too… pretty, cursive scribbles…), or on Google Drive. After all of the academic writing we do for school, it feels good to write something more fluff-based than critical or rhetorical analysis (not that there’s anything wrong with that either!). Writing for me is a good form of catharsis, even if my characters do nothing like I do or have the exact opposite personality traits.

Personally, I enjoy writing online because I’m not always comfortable sharing my creative writing with my peers. It’s a lot easier to let loose with a digital and relatively anonymous pen (I even have a pen name). That’s what I’m looking forward to most this weekend, other than getting done with some school work.

The first time I really tried writing a long story was in eighth grade, when my friend and I started writing a paranormal romance novela. I know it’s still sitting in my closet back home. If my writing is legible, I may reread it this winter. Back then, we dreamed of living together in an apartment together and co-writing books. Things have changed since then. We aren’t very close anymore, but I still can look back on our time writing together with happiness for a few reasons. First, because we trusted each other with our work. It’s really intimidating to share what you’re working on, so sharing a story helped build my confidence. Secondly, but almost more importantly, because I was able to discover that I could use writing as a sort of relief: a break for the real world and from my earthly concerns.

This fall break, I hope you were able to spend some time to relax and do some activities to refresh, whether it’s adult coloring pages or riding your bike.