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If you look at the way movies and television portray spring break as a nonstop party. However, there’s no rule saying you have to spend your time away from school indulging in unhealthy habits and risking possible arrest.
What are some wholesome activities that are enjoyable and rewarding? Here are five fun and fulfilling spring break activities to consider.
1. Get Entrepreneurial
You might be concerned about your income potential after graduation. Getting a degree no longer ensures earning a living wage and most starting salaries delay your adult life, forcing you to live with your parents or multiple roommates for years until you have enough for a place to call home.
Fortunately, you can start plenty of businesses with little to no capital, creating a fulfilling side hustle that lets you exercise your talents while supplementing your income. Unfortunately, you need to keep at most of them for a considerable time before they become lucrative. For example, blogging seems like a dream if you love to write — but most of your competitors have teams running their sites. If you’re solo, it can take years to build an audience and sufficient credibility to develop your niche.
However, the sooner you start, the earlier you can reap the rewards. Why not spend your spring break investigating what types of hustles you enjoy?
Pro-tip: Your selection doesn’t necessarily need to be related to your major. It might be better if it doesn’t. You might love what you do, but spending eight hours each day doing it followed by a few hours each night can leave you burned out and frazzled. Why not explore a different passion?
2. Rediscover Your Hometown
Have you ever poked fun at tourists visiting your hometown? Depending on where you live, you might get an influx of visitors. What you consider mundane is unique to them, but there are probably multiple points of interest in your hometown that you’ve never bothered to visit.
Why not hop on Yelp or Google and look for fascinating destinations near you? Then, play tourist in your hometown, acting as if you were visiting from a distant land. Take photographs and journal about your experiences, following it with a nice lunch or dinner at a local hotspot.
3. Take a Course
You might rebel against this idea at first — after all, you’re on holiday from school. However, taking a course doesn’t have to entail books or studying. Why not learn something fun that you’ve put off while you’ve focused on your more serious studies?
For example, sites such as Udemy offer multiple courses in everything from coding to animal reiki, often for less than $20 a pop. YouTube is also a rich learning source and it’s free — simply search for yoga classes or how to play the ukulele.
Pay attention to local offerings, especially if online learning leaves you feeling deprived of human contact. Many local public libraries offer various free courses in everything from computer science to basic astronomy. Your parks and recreation department might also have spring break offerings where you can learn about local flora and fauna or how to get started with birdwatching.
Even some retailers get in on the educational fun. For example, home improvement stores like Home Depot often offer free or low-cost workshops on practical issues like how to build a deck or hang shelving. You won’t get these skills in most college classes — but they’re handy to know for adult life.
4. Practice Hardcore Self-Care
Hey, it’s your spring break — if you want to spend every minute relaxing, feel free! However, you’ll enjoy your quality alone time much more if you engage in activities besides bingeing Netflix.
Fortunately, you don’t have to drop a bundle on a day spa, either. There are plenty of DIY ways to pamper yourself at home. You can start by mixing up some healing potions for your hair and skin, including moisturizers and exfoliating scrubs. Fill your bathtub with tea or rosepetals — or both — and plenty of bubbles.
Whip up some nourishing snacks that you don’t have time to prep while hitting the books. Start and end your at-home spa day with a yoga and meditation session, filling the rest of the sandwich with indulgent treatments — a bonus if you bring a friend to swap massages.
5. Volunteer
Performing acts of kindness for others benefits you, too, and not only by improving your resume. Volunteering releases a flood of positive neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, improving your mood and banishing depression. It also instills a sense of agency, that your actions can make a difference.
Volunteering also gets you active in your local community, enabling you to build connections that can benefit your future career. After all, it isn’t hard to find work — but a quality job that covers your bills with a little extra to save can be as tricky to locate as the proverbial haystack needle. It never hurts to promote yourself as someone who gives back, as employers seek candidates with such qualities.
5 Fun and Fulfilling Alternative Spring Break Ideas
Movies and television shows might portray spring break as a carefree time to do nothing but party. They conveniently ignore the consequences irresponsible behavior can have on your future.
Instead, why not consider one of the five fun and fulfilling spring break ideas above? You’ll still get much-needed R&R while enriching your lifestyle.
