Springtime is only one week away

Happy one-week-until-spring-break, everyone. The countdown is on because I am extremely excited to take a break from school and work, but really, who isn’t? 

My plans consist of visiting grandparents and a possible road trip with my friends; the second one is rather uncertain, though, because it seems my friends and I are not capable of planning anything.

Spring break is interesting because people have been saying that it seems really early this year. For me, though, I’m not sure it can come “early” enough, so I have no objections or reservations. Now, I do have some opinions on fall break. Mainly the fact that we do not have one. 

The University of Minnesota Twin-Cities does not have a fall break because for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most significant one is that we start after Labor Day because of the State Fair. Along with that, we have a fairly long winter break to make up for it. But going three straight months with not a single day off is both brutal and mentally draining.

Along with that, after our three straight months, we get two days off for Thanksgiving and then it’s right into finals. I’m actually working on a Daily story asking students if they would prefer to make winter break shorter in order to have a fall break, so it will be interesting to see what students think about breaks and such. 

But enough of me complaining. It’s my best friend's birthday on Feb. 22 and I’m excited - not just because she is turning 21. Along with that, her birthday is my half birthday; the flip side of that is my birthday is her half birthday (proof we are soulmates). But for her birthday, I bought a notebook and have been getting all of our friends to write messages in it to her, saying just how awesome she is and how she has impacted their lives. I even got her parents and sister to sign it without her knowing (that’s how sneaky I am). But I am super excited to give it to her because even though we all know how amazing she is, I know she sometimes fails to recognize it. 

I’ve realized I love giving notes to people. In high school, instead of giving up anything for Lent, I would instead do something good every day. For example, one year, I took sticky-notes and wrote anonymous notes on them to people I knew telling them how great they were and to keep up the good work. I would then find a way to give it to them without them knowing it was me - sticking them in a locker, a folder, a backpack. It was a lot of fun and very fulfilling knowing that I had brightened someone’s day anonymously. 

Then, there were all the notes I wrote during the pandemic, but those were mostly for my family and myself. There are some of my journal entries that are funny to read because it’s just me dramatizing my life stuck in the house because of COVID and bad weather. I guess I was trying to be like the main character in movies where they stare longingly out a window where rain is dripping bleakly down while sad, somber music plays. 

I have been writing a journal for most of my life. Skimming back through the journals is very heartwarming, cringy, and funny at the same time. Some entries are very deep and personal;  others list the names of my crushes at the time (first and last, in case I want to look them up again someday). I write the journal entries for me, but also for my kids and grandkids who will hopefully want to read them and get to know me, just as I enjoy reading my grandpa’s journals. 

My Determination: “Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.” - Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing.