Over the years, spring break has been highly romanticized in pop culture. We often associate spring break with wild parties, bikinis and beaches, or doing dumb stuff with your friends. While I wasn’t able to get any of the former two things, I was able to get the latter: fun with friends. You don’t need to go on a vacation or do anything spectacular to have a good time. Adventure and excitement is waiting for you, right where you are. This past spring break, I set out to enjoy myself in the confines of Calgary city limits. Join me as I reminisce about spring break times passed.
{Day 0.5}
The Thursday before spring break, we had a half day at school. Of course, with a half day, there was nothing but goofing around in class, but I was still feeling the stresses of the week. Therefore, I decided that it was justified to travel to Sunterra Market to grab myself some gelato before making my way to a YODA meeting. I felt pretty productive (more productive than the earlier half of that day) and it was a good start to the break.
{Day 1}
On the first official day of spring break, I had to get up and go to school anyways to help with Parent-Teacher Interviews. It was a bit drab, but the fun part came afterwards. I worked together with our teacher coordinator to pull together an Amazing Race team building activity for my Student Council. It was pretty stressful trying to string things together and keep it running smoothly, but it turned out okay in the end. They had a ton of fun and it was worth it. (As a side note, there are boys on the council, but none of them happened to be available on that day.)
Afterwards, I moseyed down onwards to a spontaneous Get Happy Project, in celebration of International Day of Happiness.
We stood at the top of a bridge and held up a sign that read “Happy Friday!” and watched the cars go home at rush hour. We received an amazingly positive response, with lots of waves and honks (the only time it’s acceptable to honk at teenagers). Overall, it was a super uplifting start to spring break.
{Day 4}
Over the weekend, I went to see Divergent and Cinderella (in 3D both times) with my family, and spent a lot of time generally bonding. I also had time to go get my nails done, since I had peeled them off in a slight bought of anxiety. Then, on the Monday, I took a much-needed shopping trip to do retail therapy with friends. I finally gave in and let myself buy a selfie stick, and I do not regret a thing. It came in handy over the next couple of days.
{Day 5}
Our crew met up again the next day to have a fun little hot tub party. There was pizza and Cards Against Humanity involved. I spent a good couple of minutes chasing my friend’s cats around, trying to get them to love me as much as I loved them. Taking a dip in a hot tub at night is super fun, and I recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to. We didn’t end up having a sleepover because we were all busy the next day, but it was nice to just hang out for a few hours. We started telling some ghost stories in the hot tub while it was dark outside, but we were interrupted by parents arriving to pick us up.
{Day 6}
Around noon, I made my way down to the Youth Central office to work on a little design for YODA. Then, I took a wild bus adventure to downtown. A couple of friends and I have banded together, and for the past few months we have been starting on a non-profit mental health initiative. We met up at Tea Happy for one of our monthly meetings. I got there a bit early so I ordered some lunch to keep me company. Their restaurant is super modern and cute, and the iPad ordering system is one of the greatest ideas of the 21st century. We had a great meeting, then I went home to a whole lot of nothing.
{Day 7}
I went on another mini shopping trip, this time to the CORE and found some cool stuff at H&M. I added this sassy tank top to my pyjama repertoire, but I would probably still wear it out as a regular shirt. After I got home, I immediately changed into pyjamas, as most people do, but then my parents decided we were going out for dinner. I had just started doing my laundry, so the only thing I had to wear was a chiffon pink maxi dress. Needless to say, I looked pretty out of place at the Asian Buffet.
{Day 9}
I had the chance to interview one of our super cool bloggers, Katie Kim, who is April’s Blogger of the Month. (You can check out that interview here!) She’s a super cool girl and we had a pretty chill conversational. Afterwards, I got to go pick up my graduation dress and find matching shoes. I got the whole outfit together, so now it’s off my mind. (The only thing left is maintaining my sanity until it’s time to graduate.)
The last day of spring break was reserved for catching up on last-minute homework and stewing in the realization that I had to go back to the daily grind. As you can see, I’m not the most exciting person on the planet, and I had a relatively tame spring break. There were no palm trees, beaches, or famous landmarks, but I managed to have a great time. Having fun isn’t about where you are or what you’re doing, it’s about being with the right people.