I have a hard time taking breaks. I feel guilty–there’s always work I could be doing to be a better teacher. There’s always chapters of my book I could be revising. There’s always projects–yes, even in my tiny apartment–that lurk around corners.
But when the break is over and I’m back at school, I feel guilty for not doing what I really wanted to do on break.
So on Christmas Eve, I thought, “What do I really want to do this break? Not what should I do, but what would help me say, ‘I had a great break!’ when I return to school in January?”
One word came to mind: movies.
Every break, I say that I’m going to see all these movies and I never do. Most of the time it’s about money, since movies are so expensive. But our local movieplex has showtimes every day for only $5. So I made a schedule, and by the time I go back to school I will have seen six movies in the theater.
But wait! There’s more!
My sister gave me a DVD collection of Warner Brothers musicals. Twenty musicals, in all. So I’m also making my way through those (though I won’t get through all of them before school starts).
What else could make me have a great break?
Basketball and football.
I’m not going to talk about BYU because they just break my heart way too often. But I watched some pretty exciting NFL playoff games, a couple of wild college basketball games, will go to one or two high school basketball games, and I’ll probably catch snippets of remaining bowl games this week.
All this is not to say I’ve completely neglected my work. I’ve done some tutorials and Friday and Saturday I’ll spend mostly at the school getting ready for a new semester.
But I’ve had a great break so far, and the rest of the week looks to just improve on what I’ve started.
So when my students ask me “Did you have a nice break?” I can say “Yes,” and really mean it for once.
