Beating the Post-Spring Break Blues

by Angelynn Huang ‘24

Post-vacation blues are such a real thing. When you’re on vacation, it feels as though nothing matters, and you have all the time in the world to just enjoy yourself. Time often stands still, and there’s no better feeling.

Coming back from spring break, particularly as a senior, I felt awful. Returning home late at night, I forced myself to unpack and sort my laundry but soon after, descended into a spiral of sheer sadness over the next two weeks. It was difficult not having the freedom to do what I wanted every morning when I woke up. I found myself not taking proper care of myself, skipping classes, procrastinating assignments that I hadn’t done throughout the entire semester, and not working out. The bad habits I had were slowly accumulating and beginning to affect me over time.

It suddenly hit me by the third week of my depressive episode when I called my mom and started speaking to her about how I was feeling. She suggested what I was feeling was simply a case of post-vacation blues combined with extreme senioritis. My mother is an expert at going back to work the day after her vacations and suggested the following wellness tips that have helped me bounce back during April (finals season) and the last busy, home stretch for many of us.

Give Yourself Rest

Vacation and traveling, particularly over spring break, is tiring. Let’s be honest, we’re out and about, waking up early in the morning, going out at night, and adjusting to time differences. Give yourself grace and acknowledge that you might not feel refreshed from a vacation and feel tired instead. Allow yourself to rest for a couple of days and catch up on any sleep. Once I took the space to sleep in for a couple of days, I noticed that I felt significantly better and ready to work.

Eat Healthy

When I say healthy, I don’t mean restriction but listening to body cues for when you’re hungry. On vacation, many of us were probably eating foods we normally wouldn’t eat, drinking alcohol, and not getting the correct nutrition we normally would. Taking the time to slowly incorporate the right nutrients back into your body through healthy, home-cooked meals is great for recovery. Food is life, and without the proper nutrition, it would be difficult to feel better or energized.

Focus on Small Wins

For me, this meant minimizing the number of items on my to-do list and starting by doing small, important things. During the regular school semester, I’d find myself piling on loads of tasks on my daily to-do list, but coming back from vacation, I found this would easily overwhelm me. Instead, I decided to tackle this problem by cutting my list down into smaller pieces and tasks that wouldn’t feel as bad. For example, I’d tackle easy tasks such as sending emails or going grocery shopping before approaching larger problems such as catching up on schoolwork or starting school projects that were approaching their deadlines. This way, the dopamine from the smaller tasks would carry on and motivate me to begin larger tasks that I was procrastinating.

Following these three tips, I was able to slowly bounce back and get into the groove of things. Spring break is a much-needed break in the middle of the semester, and recovery is a very legitimate thing to need post-travels.

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