There’s a certain mystique surrounding a college spring break, especially in your senior year. Locations, outfits, plane tickets, and usually alcohol seem to be on the forefront of everyone’s minds. My senior spring break was quite the different story. My plans revolved around my house, my dog, and visiting a friend for St Patrick’s Day weekend. However, the week before break, I decided to book an Airbnb, for myself, in Maine, in the woods. So here’s how that went.
I was set to go for the last few days of break, so I still got to spend time with friends and family at home. But once the time came I packed up my backpack, gathered food I needed for 3 days, and set off on the 3 hour drive to Maine. I brought food with me so that once I got there, I didn’t have to drive until I left. The place I was staying had multiple houses, and I actually had to stay the first night in a different one than I originally booked, but they were right next to each other, so it wasn’t a hassle. The main draw for me was that these were actually tree houses. Call it fulfilling my childhood dream of having a treehouse and being like Bindi the Jungle Girl. The house I spent most of my time in was 2 separate, small rooms connected to each other by a rope bridge. One had the kitchen and bathroom, one had the bedroom. It did suck when I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and I had to unlock 2 doors, outside, to get there (it even snowed one night, I had to brave the elements just to pee). The bedroom had one wall that was completely windows, so you could get the view of the water and the forest right from the bed, and there was so much natural light that I rarely turned on the lamp.
Outside of the opposite building there were 2 sets of decks: one had a set of chairs and a little screen surrounding it, while the other was a larger outside deck with a small hot tub. It was a wood-fired hot tub, so you had to light and maintain the fire in order to heat up the water. It took me a while (and a lot of firewood) to figure it out, but I can proudly say that I was successful without calling my dad for help. Other than the hot tub, I mainly spent my time cooking, reading, and writing since it was still pretty cold in Maine at the end of March. I was even able to get out of an almost year-long reading slump, which had really hit me hard once the school year started. Despite the cold weather, I did make one venture out into the woods. I was itching for a walk, and after some amateur climbing down a steep hill I found a little path to follow. It took me down close to the water, and even though it was chilly the sky was clear, so the view was gorgeous. I even let an intrusive thought win and climbed into a tree for a better view.
I’ve had friends say that I was the most likely to go off-the-grid, and now I can say that I would enjoy that if it ever happened. I think it was important to take this time to myself to fully recharge and even reflect a bit. As graduation is looming, it can be difficult to not get overwhelmed by all of the things I feel like I have to keep track of. I don’t often sit alone with my thoughts, but it’s something that I’m trying to get better at, and being in this environment helped me sort through my own head. Even though this little trip was pretty expensive for me, I still decided to go through with it and treat it as a little graduation present to myself, and I’m so glad I did. It really was the relaxation I needed, other than driving home in a snowstorm of course (0/10 do not recommend, I nearly got run off the road by an 18-wheeler… twice).