Spring break is the third most anticipated vacation time for students, next to winter and summer break. It’s time for vacation, traveling, and most importantly a week off of school. Because of COVID-19, all of that is canceled, and nobody’s happy about it. 

It’s no new knowledge that most schools are canceling their spring break to prevent students from traveling and keeping covid numbers down. That does not mean students have to be happy about the solutions.

As most of us know, AU has also found ways to prevent the spread by canceling spring break and introducing “flex days”.

Flex days are two days of the semester where students don’t have to worry about attending classes in person or online. They are a great thing to have, but they don’t make up for a week of vacation.

This should have been my first spring break experience, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist. It’s just another week of classes, trying to meet that 11:59 deadline, and going to work.

I can only speak for myself in this discussion, but without a spring break, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed and the days are starting to melt together. 

Every day feels like a never-ending Monday, then suddenly it’s Friday, and then back to Monday in the blink of an eye. 

Imagine that nonstop for sixteen weeks with no time separation in between. It sounds awful if you ask me.

Even with the two flex days in between, it does not supplement a full break because we still have work we could or should be doing. Going to school during a pandemic is harder, but having to go nonstop is unbearable.

The only highlight about not having a spring break is that we are almost to week eight. Even though we started a week late, we are already pretty much halfway through, but still half more to go.

I understand canceling spring break is a way to stop the spread and keep other students safe while living on campus, it’s just harder to gain that “normal” college experience when one of the greatest weeks on campus is canceled. Then again, nothing this year falls under the category of “normal”.

 Either way, I do appreciate the steps being taken by the school to slow the spread, but we are just one in a million.

I can’t speak for other AU students since I am only just in my first year, but I do feel like the school should have a better alternative to spring break so burnout isn’t as high for some students.