Vacations should offer less pressure, more fun
COMMENTARY
By Laura McFarland

I just got back from my nice, relaxing three-day vacation from school, tests and, supposedly, stress.
I am exhausted.

The weekend is over, but its effects remain. This week’s homework is beckoning. There are books to read, assignments to be done and tests to be studied for.

So, not surprisingly, all I want to do is climb into bed and not wake up until Friday.

Like many students coming off this long weekend, I am suffering from too much vacation.

We leave school Thursday, ready for exciting trips to fantastic places with friends, family or alone. It doesn’t matter where the destination is, as long as it is away from school.

Vacation is wonderful. You can go see all the sights, eat out for every meal and party all night. It always seems impossible to fit in every single thing you want to do. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

Catch a plane, arrive in a city and let the speed vacationing begin. You rush from place to place, trying to cram 30 experiences into one day. You probably have great memories, great pictures and a great sunburn.

But we spend so much time trying to fit it all in that we end up completely stressed and tired. In the end, people often arrive home from their vacations more exhausted than when they left.

There are always going to be those whirlwind experiences, but not every vacation has to be a marathon.

You can relieve some of the stress of vacationing and still have some of the best times of your life if you remember a few tips that I was very rudely reminded of this weekend:

• Book a hotel in advance. Traveling around a strange city at night can be dangerous and often leaves a big dent in your wallet when you get tired of looking for a place and settle on the next one available.

• Don’t go somewhere with the “I might never be here again” mentality. This keeps people running ragged because they might never get back to the city. You end up missing out on some fascinating aspects of a city and you become exhausted from all the rushing around.

• Pick the “must do” things you want to see and do and just leave some time for a few “want to do” things. You won’t get burned out as easily and you get to explore places more thoroughly.

• Be flexible. If you want to stay at a place longer, then do it. Itineraries are great for planning, but they shouldn’t rule your vacation.

• Get a map. You can often find free or cheap ones at hotels, visitor centers, gas stations, etc. This way, you can avoid accidentally ending up at the Mexico border and having to make a very embarrassing U-turn, which actually happened to me.

Traveling is a wonderful experience. So let’s try to take some of the drama out of vacationing and take at least a few minutes to just sit back and enjoy it.

Managing Editor Laura McFarland is a senior news-editorial journalism and English major from Houston.