Ah, the woes of a college student on break...

True life: Taking a vacation is EXHAUSTING. You know those people who claim that Thanksgiving is oh so rejuvenating and relaxing and restorative and whatnot? Well they're lying. Or perhaps deranged. But definitely wrong.

Question: How does a college student relax over Thanksgiving?

a)schmoozing with family friends at least 3 times a day
b)attempting to cook stuff for Thanksgiving (and burning it/having to start over/dealing with the guilt of it all)
c)going out to bars every freakin' night, since it's all so novel and exciting for us 21-year-olds
d)waking up at 9:30 a.m. to go hiking with the padre
e)trying to get actual homework done since WE'RE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A SEMESTER PEOPLE and this isn't a real break
f)realizing that job applications are actually due really soon and start frantically working on resumes and networking emails and lists of Why I Will Be Your #1 Employee, while simultaneously nursing a hangover and pretending to be a functional human being
g)repeating this for four days straight
h)all of the above

Take an educated guess for the answer.

But seriously, who has this kind of endurance?? Apparently my friends, my sisters, my parents, my extended network of family friends.... It's absurd. I'm convinced everyone in DC is slightly out of their minds and way too high-energy for their own good. Yesterday morning, around 9:45 a.m., I woke up to my little sister jumping into my bed, my dad chopping approximately 200 pounds of firewood, my mom blasting classical music and my other sister yelling at me to play football at the neighborhood park. I couldn't help but think, WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?! How are you so awake?! It was terrible, I yelled at them all and said "GO AWAY" and tried to keep sleeping but failed and ended up getting out of bed at ten and feeling like I had reverted back to my angst-y teenage years, in which I bitterly stalk downstairs in my pajamas and resent that I have to be conscious at such a God-forsaken hour.

I've clearly matured since attending college. Clearly.

But then I poked my head out the window and realized oh snap it's like sixty degrees and sunny and the most spectacular day left in 2013, and immediately called my friends (thus waking them up) to go on a hike-adventure to the Potomac River and clamber on some really cool rocks and play with snakes and suntan and all that jazz.

What did I tell ya? Vacationing is tough.

Unfortunately tomorrow I have to return back to the "real world" and write a paper and prepare a presentation and read an entire book and re-learn my entire Chopin piece... Ah well. The truth is, I kind of have nothing to complain about. That's the secret: I'm actually incredibly thankful to be home, with my family and friends and the Potomac River and delicious cheese and people I love, and this break has been amazing. A tease, if anything, for Christmas.