Spring Break
And so it all ends with a flurry of snow on a sunny yet cold spring day. I ponder as I look outside the breakfast table window, whether my break this year has gone to waste. The more I think the more I am satisfied, for my break has been most productive recreation-ally. Academically, not so much, it’s somewhat disappointing, as I’d brought home all my books to look over. Foolish me, to think I’d study ahead this spring break if any at all.
It all began Friday morning when I visited UIUC once more, for an interview to see if art is what I really want to pursue rather than computer science. I decided with certainty and turned in my applications. I’ll be crushed if I’m not accepted. Graphic design is ranked 7 in the nation, not as great as computer science, but still pretty good. I’ve decided to minor in computer science instead.
Friday afternoon, my family and I boarded the van and drove to Chicago for my brother’s state chess tournament. The ride there took about four hours, and I “slept” most of the way there. I rarely ever actually fall asleep on car rides or plane rides. His chess tournament was to take place Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and end Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. with the awards ceremony right afterwards. The area around the park district where the chess tournament was hosted was pretty nice. It seemed like a rich district. The middle school was huge.
The building where the tournament took place had many small gyms and a big gym that had a track around it overhead. It even had a workout center. The games took place in the big gym and people could watch the matches from above, on the track. There was also a fun playground outside that we played on between matches. It wasn’t that fun for me even though I loved playgrounds when I was much younger, but I could tell both my brothers really enjoyed playing on it along with some other kids. We ate at T.G.I. Friday’s Saturday night I think, for our first time. We rarely eat out so that was quite a treat.
The rest of the week consisted of me laying around watching anime, working on my web site layout and working on my art project for 2D Design. I managed to finish the Prince of Tennis series, all the OVAs besides the National Finals which don’t air until April, plus both Prince of Tennis movies. Afterwards I watched all of Witch Hunter Robin, Castle in the Sky, TRC: Tokyo Revelations 3, and the special for Naruto Shippuden (eps. 51-52) which really dragged on longer than necessary and filled with fillers and flashbacks. I’m somewhat sad that Tokyo Revelations is now over and I still haven’t heard any news of more OVAs, but I really hope there’s more.
Once the weekend came around again, I spent more family time. On Friday, I played cards with my family for four hours straight. We played a Chinese game called Zhao Peng You or Find a Friend. On Saturday morning, I made coffee with my mom and brother. Then we went shopping at Bergners at the Shops at Grand Prairie. Our band played at their grand opening a long time ago. I felt nostalgic of my marching/concert/pep band days while we were walking around there. I subscribed to Dynamic Graphics, my brother to Readers Digest, and my dad I’m not sure because he picked a lot of magazines.
On Sunday, we went ice skating. My youngest brother just started skating, and while I was trying to teach him how to skate, I started skating facing him, and found that I could finally skate backwards. This was a surprise since I’d tried many times before, and each time ending in failure. This time I was able to skate somewhat consistently backwards for entire laps at a time. I’m still not great at it, and the speed needs much improvement, but I’m much better at it than before that day. That was probably my biggest accomplishment of all.
Strangely, even though I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to accomplish i.e. hang out with friends, go to Michigan Avenue, and read ahead for classes, I’m still satisfied and convinced that I haven’t wasted my time.
Note: I actually wrote this the day afterwards, a different version, a bit earlier, can be found on my Livejournal.
Alright, so I’m also curious as to how you guys’ Spring Breaks went, if you’ve already had it. If not, what do you plan on doing? If you no longer have Spring Break, I guess this doesn’t really apply, and sad will be the day when I realize I don’t have one either.
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oi haha what a long entry! But glad you got some rest on the way up to Chicago.
Whether it be computer science or art, make sure to keep in mind (economics).
- only if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing =). then the endless days of toil is unbearable
- i agree, you haven’t. watching that many series is more than worth it
March Break has already passed for me and I was just happy to relax and hang out with my friends. It’s good to hear that you enjoyed your March Break :).
I wish I got a Spring Break. I would go on a vacation or something.
I downloaded and have been re-watching a lot of really old anime, like Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2. The good old times!
I just want to say that there’s nothing better on a Spring Break than to sit around and watch anime.
It sounds like you are planning for your future well. You want to do something you like versus just picking it because it is popular.
I had what would be “Fall Break” — just a week, though, so it’s nothing spectacularly lazy, but I did manage to get a lot of work done, and hang out with friends in equal intensity. I’m glad for that, ’cause I have three months straight of university after I go back!
I’m glad you’ve decided what you want to do — sometimes for me, it’s still a leap of faith which direction I take, but hopefully things will always turn out for the best! Otherwise, yay for family time!
I think as long as you had fun doing what you did over break, then it was definitely not wasted time =) cuz really spring break was just there for you to sit back and chill and do things not necessarily on a schedule, yeah? =D It sounded like you had a good time. It felt too short, didn’t it?
Wow. Your break sounds a lot like mine. So much that I don’t even referr to it as break-i dont know WHAT it was…but it deffinitly wasn’t a time for school or even mental rest. It was just hectic. I hope your next school break (of some sort) i better and more productive (not that we want to be as far as school work goes..but oh well.)
*Sigh* I haven’t had a spring break in nearly five years now. How depressing. I wish work would give me one, those bastards.
At least yours was eventful.
Sounds like you were very busy, nice. Great about that skating skill. I was never able to skate backwards.
Carpe Diem.
Mmm anime, I wish a) I was not poor and b) that I had high speed internet so I could partake… but no haha. I’ve just started my “spring break” (australia… so its more like autumn but anyway) and starting it on a good note I think, laser tagging for one of my friends’ birthday ^-^ Looking forward to it. That’s so cool that you went ice-skating, it sounds really fun!