The pre-Spring-Break stages of grief

So spring break is in two weeks, but frankly it has snuck up on most of us. It feels like just yesterday we were just coming back from winter break and starting new classes. Now I am definitely not complaining because we all know I would much rather be back home celebrating St. Patricks day than here killing myself over K-201. But there is definitely a level of grief that goes along with finding out Spring Break is only two weeks away.

1. Denial and Isolation

Okay, so your friend asks, “Are you ready for Spring Break?” And a level of panic rolls over you. “What? How could Spring Break be already here?” “But there’s still snow on the ground.” “This cannot be. I’m not bikini ready!” You literally die, so you lock yourself in your room and call everyone trying to figure out what you can be doing for Spring Break and secretly also do squats ’cause you gotta get toned.

2. Anger

You get angry at yourself and the world for not realizing and reminding you that spring break is soon and that there is prep that goes into this. You saw runners outside, but it never actually clicked this many be something you should be doing too.

I should have known Break was coming when my Micro TA started going on about how I should be studying for my midterm, ’cause they are coming up before Spring Break. I didn’t realize it was this soon. Now another thing to stress about — ugh, micro TAs always bursting my bubbles.

3. Bargaining

So you start getting desperate — really desperate. You look to the heavens and plead to whatever god or gods you believe in. “Please, just let me have plans. I promise I’ll actually study for Spanish next time.” You have this whole new diet you read about online, but all you crave is Chocolate Moose now that they sell it at the library. Like, come on, you like have to have it. So you start cheating — a lot.

4. Depression

You realize that Spring Break is days away and you have no big plans and you’re actually just feeling like the world is punishing you because you didn’t go to the library last Saturday. Every time you see your friend who always has to talk about how she got a trip to Mexico with her boyfriend, you just fake laugh and go crawl into a hole and watch Netflix and sob.

5. Acceptance 

So you are in the car going back to your house and you have finally come to terms with everything. Sure, you’re not going anywhere, but it’s gonna be really nice tomorrow and maybe you and your bestie can go shopping or go get food to catch up.

And sure, you’re not going to be laying out at the beach, but you can still lay around the house watching Netflix and drowning in oven-bake pizza without a care in the world. It’s not like anything is due the next day. You feel weirdly happy and realize that you are glad that you didn’t spend money on a 10 day Spring Break 2k16 when you could save up even more and really have the best Summer 2K16 — provided you remember to plan accordingly.