Winter Break is Not Real

I love being home. I miss my parents and my friends. I miss Philadelphia. I enjoy it here. Yet I realized how winter break is NOTHING like real life. Unless your occupation is a teacher, you don't get these breaks. When else do you get 3-4 weeks to do whatever you like? Sure the holidays complicate things, but it's pretty open.

It's interesting because college is supposed to prepare you for the "real world" and getting a job, but outside of the class, it doesn't really do a good job (pun pun pun.) With all the free time, it's almost nothing like the real world. Lots of adults say to take advantage of the free time, but good luck having anyone 18-22 actually follow through. Their idea of free time means more time to go to a frat party or sleep. It's hard for me to disagree with that philosophy most times.

What's rough about break is there is not a lot of things to do. Everything costs money, so when you don't make any, its hard to spend. Philly's got great night life and restaurants, but I'm a poor college student. I've got nothing to do. I e-mailed a few PR firms in the Philadelphia area to see if there was any space for an intern over break, but they told me that it wouldn't be worth my time because of the slow-down of holidays and how little time would actually be spent. While I appreciate their honesty, that still doesn't leave me with anything to do.

This break is so long. It's not real. I'm frustrated. My friends are frustrated. Yesterday my buddy kept asking me what we could do and I had no good ideas other than going to the mall. I don't do much productive. Sure, I have a part-time job at a retail store, but thats only 10 hours a week. The rest of my week I'm free. This is the perfect time to find a new hobby or do something time-intensive that you couldn't do usually. I'm not sure what exactly that means. Something more interesting than sleeping and the television.

Instead I come home and am so burnt out from the stress of finals (another unreal aspect of college) I just want to relax. I have zero motivation. The few things I'm motivated by are Netflix, food, and friends. There's times where I can't tell if this is natural 21 year old behavior or I'm beyond-average lazy. I think it's a mix of both. Either way, it's nights like this where I feel like I'm just wasting time, but I'm unsure of how to correct this issue. I need to hit the pause button and figure things out.

On a sidenote, I'm in love with the TV show Dexter. It's awesome. Check it out immediately.