College and University Blog
Running Solo: How to Entertain Yourself When All of Your Friends Go Away during Break
Have you ever known what it was like to be the lone wolf at the dorm during break when all of your friends take off for home or other places? You seem to be left behind in a world all of your own. That is both a discouraging and encouraging situation—discouraging because you’re not getting away and you’re feeling trapped and alone; encouraging because, well, you’re alone. Those who like their own personal space will really enjoy this because they will have their own space and quietude. Still, those who don’t and can’t go home can easily find ways to entertain themselves throughout the duration.
Well, as we all know, there are the television and the stereo, but as desirable and necessary as these two items are for young college students away from home for the first time, they can get old, very fast (except for the tunes—they never die). Winter or spring break, however, is the perfect time to catch up on those new DVDs you bought mid-semester when they were on sale and absolutely needed to be bought at that particular point in time. This is also great because you never have to worry about being interrupted (don’t forget to unplug the phone, too, after you’ve talked with your parents). This will be four-to-six hours of non-stop visual intoxication—just what you’ve been waiting for the previous seven-to-fifteen weeks!
What about the rest of the day? You absolutely have to get out. As much as you love the solitude of your own room, the walls do eventually begin to move in on you. Believe it or not, it will happen.
Well, if your dorm has a game room, you’re lucky. Shoot a few games of one-player stick. As fun as that usually is, pool is no fun when you know that you’re always going to win. This is definitely a great time for practicing, though, especially if you’re a ringer.
If you prefer to stay in that dorm room, however, that’s also an excellent time to catch up reading on those books you bought at the same time you when you got the DVDs (That would have included the following semester’s reading, if you know what it is and have the books, but, then again, you’re a young college student and this is break, so . . . who kidding whom?). Getting all the way through those books will be nothing, if you love reading (Hey, some you college students love to read—no kidding).
There’s also the cinema or the local mall, if you have the money. Heck, you just might meet some locals of the opposite gender there, which can only be a good thing. With new-found friends, you can get some action going, whether it is a party, a card game, hanging out at the coffee shop, or whatever inspires you and fires your imagination. The point is that now things are getting more exciting, and that’s all because you got out of that dorm room of yours.
If you know beforehand that you’ll be staying on-campus throughout the break periods, you would be well off to plan for such a contingency. This sounds boring as heck, true, but it doesn’t have to be. Just use some of that good ol’ creativity that got you into college in the first place. That’ll do it!