School breaks are hardly ever that, hardly ever “breaks.”

Thanksgiving break is about giving thanks with your family, and Christmas break is about spending time with them. 

Family oriented breaks aren’t bad necessarily, it’s nice to catch up with family, but spring break is special in that there are no familial obligations. 

Like spring cleaning, spring break is a time centralized around you and your upkeep. 

Spring is like that, centralized around individualism as opposed to groups of family or friends. In the spring we have St. Patrick’s day (a day that is basically an excuse to have fun), Mardi Gras (another excuse), April Fool’s, and Holi, to name the key players. 

Across cultures in the northern hemisphere, at least, the springtime is for people to have fun.

I wondered why that was, but I suppose the answer isn’t that complicated: warm weather, a bountiful time for crops, and new life. 

I think our ancestors knew what was up when they established these holidays. 

Now we have a stable food supply basically all year round. You want blueberries in October? No problem. It’s cold outside in the winter? Turn up the heater. 

My point is, the passing of the seasons has become a little obscured in all our advancements. For this, the year seems to go on forever, punctuated by holidays and birthdays but not divided in sections. The spoils are great, don’t misunderstand, but as far as keeping time goes, we lose some capacity. 

You might wonder why this matters, but think about going to school without your phone or watch to keep track of time. There is no assurance that you’re making headway, that you’re half way through the day, and that you’ve accomplished quite a lot since 9 am. 

Well, spring is here, and we know so by the coming of the school break. It took me by surprise, and honestly it wasn’t until last Wednesday that I realized it was almost already upon us, but I’m glad I got the hint. 

This is the break for you. You don’t have to go to grandma’s and you don’t have to buy anyone any gifts. The people who established these holidays long ago recognized their importance after the trials and starvations of winter. We don’t deal with those things anymore, thank god, but we do face other things: midterms and college applications and world affairs.

Take a break and have fun.