In almost every stereotypical, corny, high school musical-esque movie, spring break is the one time per school year when students have no worries about anything at all-- no homework. Instead, they travel to at least five different countries all in the span of a week. I remember being an oblivious kindergartener watching these types of movies and then proceeding to tell my mom that I wanted to be like Lela from Teen Beach Movie and sing on the beach for the entirety of my spring break. (Yes, I know Teen Beach Movie takes place in summer, but like I just said, I was an oblivious kindergartener, and I was not gonna live any other way). 

Now, as a high school student living through the worst year of my high school career--*cough cough* Junior year *cough*-- it is coming into sharper focus that, by the time spring break rolls around, normal people are not going to be traveling the world or partying on the beach-- in March, of all months. The beaches in the Pacific Northwest are too cold in March, so if that is what you are spending your time doing, maybe consider somewhere warmer, like Florida. Actually, scratch that. Florida is a nightmare. Do not ruin your spring break going there. I would rather freeze to death than get eaten by an alligator or jumped by Florida Man. Anyway, spring break is really only eventful if you are rich and can afford to blow hundreds of dollars in the span of a week in our current economic climate. So instead of exhausting your bank account, let us look at other ways you can spend this break this year. 

Let us be honest, unless you are between the grades of kindergarten and 9th grade, you are going to have homework over spring break. At the very least, you will have something to do for just one class. Very rarely do high school teachers let us take a day off in class and watch a movie or do something fun the day before break. They just give us an assignment but say that it is homework unless we do not finish it in class. Then, nobody finishes it in class because SPRING BREAK STARTS IN 3 HOURS. And then teachers have the audacity to complain about how many assignments they have to grade over break, as if they themselves did not give us that work, but I digress.  Either way, you are either missing classwork or getting a bunch piled on last minute. TEENAGE BURN OUT IS A REAL THING, PEOPLE. It tires out your brain and can destroy your motivation to do anything, cause you to develop anxiety and depression, and just generally deprive you of a healthy mindset, according to verywellmind, a mental health website. Most adults do not notice this, though. You are automatically wrong and are viewed as trying to get out of class because that's what your mom said, and adults are always right no matter what.  

If you want to come back to school feeling slightly less burnt out, then get your homework done. I promise you that Future You will appreciate it. Or don't. If you want to spend your week sleeping or playing video games (or if you are me, rewatching The Last of Us because it will have fully aired by then), then go ahead I am not going to stop you. If I am being completely honest, I probably would not do much homework over break unless I have a random burst of productivity, so who am I to give you advice on this subject? If there is anything that you should take away from this section, it is that THIS IS YOUR BREAK. Since you are a high schooler in the prime of your life, the world will automatically revolve around you and whatever shenanigans you and your friends are going to get up to, no matter what it is. Carpe Diem. 

Get a new book. Light a nice candle and get comfortable in bed. Dim the lights and get lost in the story. Then, proceed to cry when it is done because the book was all about high schoolers enjoying their time in school and partying every night until three am but still somehow staying on top of their grades. You are crying because this is the exact opposite of your high school experience because you only do something fun once a week, at most. Instead of doing all of that, you are here in bed, living vicariously through fiction. I’m kidding. Mostly. In all seriousness, investing yourself in a new story is a great way to kill time somewhat productively instead of rotting away in bed for a week straight. And now that you have read a book without an assignment attached to it, you can brag to all of your friends about how literate you are and how you can tell the difference between “effect” and “affect.” Just make sure to credit me. You got this idea from my article and I am the sole reason your break is going to be a little more enjoyable. Also, this is not me encouraging you to stay up all night reading Wattpad and Ao3 fanfictions, but if you do, still credit me as the reason you are enjoying your break. No judgment. Live. Laugh. Love. 

Yes, you read that right. If you find yourself lacking creative projects over the break, then get a group of friends together (preferably a group that someone knows their way around playing an instrument) and GET CREATIVE™. Worst case scenario: you crash and burn and realize none of your bandmates can actually play the guitar or drums and your project never leaves your basement practice room. All that money you spent on making CDs of your music has now gone to waste. You and your bandmates agree to never speak of this venture again and you go on with your lives. Best case scenario: you gain traction and hit the ground running as a hit high school band and go on to do great things. You will get rich and famous and your high school will also get famous by association because they handed you your diploma (assuming you stayed in school). I also get famous because I gave you this idea and you are going to write a thank you letter to me every time you release an album, naturally. Just make sure that you do not end up like any of those pop-punk bands that have harassment allegations against them. If you want to go far in the music industry, always remember to stay on the politically correct side of arguments on Twitter and always, ALWAYS change your music to appeal to the general public. I am kidding again. Do what you want with your music. Your life is your life, and true fans will always love you regardless.  Just do not offend an entire group of people or get yourself in legal trouble. I am so smart. Also, I am trademarking “GET CREATIVE.” Next idea. 

Get rich and slay the day away. That is all. Nobody is going to mess with the person who can, according to nerdwallet, buy out their parent's small business in five minutes. Capitalism for the win! 

Let us be honest, we have all thought about what it would be like to own a shark or a cheetah or some cool-looking animal. What is nice about this is that it is really not that hard to pull off! As long as you are rich and own a house big enough to house not only you but a large sea animal, then your options are limitless. It is not like just owning a small apartment is nearly impossible in our current economic climate, nor is finding a cool animal that is not on the brink of extinction. Once you have made a trip to your local Petco to snag a 100-gallon tank, all that is left to do is just go grab a shark. Now, this may seem hard to do, but all you have to do is head over to Sea World and grab any of the sharks or sea animals that they have in their wide selection, put it in your car, then head home. By the end of the day, you will have a giant house, and a really cool-looking shark to call your own. As long as you can avoid any hypothetical legal issues associated with this, and I mean HYPOTHETICAL….you are all set. Because as long as you are rich you can get away with taking animals out of their homes or keeping them locked up in yours. Remember, ask not what you can do for our shrinking sealife population, but what our shrinking sealife population can do for you.

Let us get controversial. First things first: I absolutely love Twitter because I can get doxxed and get death threats in my DMs (Direct Messenger for any parents reading this, or anyone born before the year 2000, really). The industrial revolution really made the world a better place. If you are looking for the perfect way to lose track of time AND get emotionally invested in pointless topics, then Twitter is the place for you. I recommend picking from the Kpop or DSMP fandoms, maybe the 2020s anime fandoms if you are feeling cheeky! Just keep in mind the one golden rule of the internet: Agree With the Masses. This essentially means that, as long as you agree with the opinion of the majority, whether it be politics or fandoms, you have a better chance of not getting doxxed or receiving death threats. Besides that one major rule, you also have to remember to not talk about your own opinions. Do not rank mainstream artists’ albums, and do not, I mean DO NOT…share an unpopular headcanon for a fandom. All of these put your mental health in danger and, unless you are feeling particularly brave enough to handle a hoard of angry stans coming after you, keep all of your opinions to yourself. As long as you keep all of these necessary survival rules in mind whenever you post on Twitter, you are all set! 

One last thing to remember: getting canceled is the absolute best thing that can happen to you online, especially if you are big in the music industry. Remember that one little insensitive joke you made on Tumblr when you were 13? Remember how you apologized a couple of days later? You have grown up now and realize that what you said was wrong and you have not said anything remotely similar since…right? Well, one of your biggest fans decided to dig that up and post a screenshot on Twitter and now you have lost half of your fans overnight AND your music career has tanked! Just make sure that you do not apologize for it again because people will misconstrue that as you being guilty, but also do not just completely ignore it because then people will think that you do not care. Find a healthy medium! Maybe just disappear for a year, even better. It is wonderful! Now you have the opportunity to rebuild that career and start all over again! Just do not make the same mistake again because, if it happens again, you will not have anywhere else to go. Now you are ready to live your best online life! Word of advice: if you love the culture that is Twitter, I recommend Tumblr! I would also recommend MySpace but I would only recommend that to any late 1990s-2000’s person reading this. Treat yourself to a little nostalgia and ignore the fact that you will soon be considered the “older generation”. 

Yes, you heard me. This is high school. Do you not know that you are supposed to essentially be an adult by now? You should have a job, extra-curriculars, and maintain a 4.0 GPA. Do not think that this is too much of a workload. This is just to prepare you for college and adulthood. I am just being harsh on you because I love you. College is just around the corner for many high school students and they need to be ready. If you have already graduated and are reading this, then maybe you should be spending your time on some adult activity. Like grocery shopping. Or taxes. I know for a FACT that those are coming up because I just got my W2 in the mail last month. GET ON IT. Besides college, make sure that your life fits your parent's expectations because we all know that those standards that many of us are held to are just there to help us grow into well-functioning adults. 

While you are trying to navigate how to grow up and finish school and choose colleges and all that great stuff, make sure that you do not grow up too fast either. You are still a child, and because of that, you still have a curfew and all that jazz. Spending your time studying until three in the morning is much more important than going out for dinner with a couple of friends, even if you will “be back by 11”. You are only 14-17 years old, and just because you are expected to make big decisions that impact the rest of your life,  that does not mean that you are allowed to stay up past midnight.

In all seriousness, even though many of the above ideas seem fun in the short-term sense, there are a lot of ugly sides to each. Adult bands should not use their fame to harass teens in search of relationships they probably should not have. Do not hold sea animals in captivity, using small spaces that you don't have. Leave that job to Sea World. Cancel culture on Twitter (and Twitter as a whole platform) is a problem, as well. Most people do not want bad people to have a large platform where they are held on a pedestal in the eyes of their fans, and that is understandable. However, pulling up tweets or actions that people made as teenagers and then painting them as horrible people who do not deserve to have a platform is ridiculous-- even though LITERALLY ALL TEENAGERS DO AND SAY STUPID THINGS. It is scientifically proven that our minds are not fully developed and, if you want to look more into that, then you can visit the National Institute of Mental Health and realize that I am not lying about this. This is not me defending those teenagers or saying that it is okay to be insensitive. However, if people age and then promote opposite behavior, then let bygones be bygones. It is the internet. It is not going to matter in 100 years because the heat death of our planet will have probably happened by then. The Earth is getting too HOT to sustain our POPULATION. Climate change is a real thing, people. 

Going back to what I said about Florida, I do not think that it is the most horrible place on Earth, but I would still rather go to the freezing beach than over there. As a last point, teenage burnout is a very real thing, despite what adults are telling you. Please make sure to take care of yourself and schedule some relaxing time each week to replenish your energy. Find a hobby! Having a positive activity to fill your free time is healthy and it will hopefully alleviate some of that high school stress and angst mix floating around in your head. Finding a healthy school and home life balance is key to staying sane. That is all I have to say on these topics, but I do hope you all can find a way to stay happy and busy (or not busy, chill time is cool too) over break. Also, the world will not revolve around you and bend to your will like I said it would before. Do not be a jerk. That is all, have a good day. Stay off of Twitter. 

Sources: 

• National Institute of Mental Health. 

• verywellmind.com

• nerdwallet.com