Imagine this: You’re sitting in your Comm 300: Feature Writing class the Friday before spring break begins. The weather has finally begun to warm up, melting all of the snow that piled up only days before. The sunshine that you felt walking to class is the only thing you’re focused on, because you know that in approximately 45 minutes, you’ll be back out there and headed to the dog park with your pooch. It’s the perfect time during the semester for a long-awaited break. You keep checking the clock, which makes you even more anxious to leave, but it’s alright, because you begin to notice your professor checking the clock too. Which means only one thing. He’s as ready for the upcoming week as you are.

The perfect start to a stress-free, low-commitment spring break, right?

Wrong.

Even though your professor might seem excited for a break from teaching for a week, he has less responsibility for his class than you do – because you are assigned homework. A chapter to read, an article to find and dissect, and an excerpt of your third story to sketch. This isn’t the only homework you have for the next week, either. As a junior, almost all six classes you are taking assign some sort of course work to keep you “engaged” during your break, on top of your outside internships and real job that you still must attend in person.

With all of this, you begin to think to yourself: This week is going to feel like more work than a normal week.