While the announcement of a cancelled Spring Break was met with little enthusiasm from the student body, the replacement “Wellness Days” were still a welcome break from the regular school week.
Many among the study body still harbor resentment towards the Tech administration for cancelling the week-long vacation period supposed to take place in March, including second-year LMC major Lily Arnold.
“I did have to dedicate big chunks [of my Wellness Days] to working on assignments, due to deadlines being the next day,” Arnold said.
Others, while maybe still missing the Florida panhandle, were able to make the most of their days off. Second-year IE Chloe Sun, rather than seeing the sand and the sea, took her Wellness Day to see a junkyard and rocks, among other things.
“For my Wellness Day, my friends and I decided to drive up to Chattanooga,” Sun said. “On our way up we stopped at the world’s oldest junkyard and saw some old cars, and we stopped in Calhoun, Georgia and saw this place called the Rock Garden.”
Upon arrival in Chattanooga, Sun and her friends ate lunch along the riverfront.
“It was beautiful,” Sun said. “We walked through the town. We got some ice cream. We walked over the pedestrian bridge. Then, we drove up to Lookout Mountain and went to Ruby Falls.”
During her time off, Sun was able to focus on having fun with her friends, rather than the stress of the semester.
Even if travel across state borders for a day was too difficult, others took day trips to different spots around Atlanta.
“[My friends and I] all piled in my car, and we all went to Little Five Points,” said Allison Horan, first-year BIO.
“We got some discount records, and then after that, I went back to my dorm, and I painted on my records that I got. It was a very fun wellness day.”
Horan was excited to not only do a fun craft, but also to see some friends she had not seen in a while.
“It improved my mental wellness for that week,” Horan said. “I felt that having that Wednesday off and not having Chem lab definitely made me feel better, even though I had a test on Friday.
I felt semi-stressed about it before, but that Wednesday off gave me peace of mind, because if I wanted to study for it I could and if I didn’t want to, I didn’t have to.”
Overall, Horan’s outlook on the Wellness Days was positive.
“I liked the two random days off, because I wouldn’t have gone on a vacation anyway,” Horan said.
“Having the two days off, I could either get caught up on work or go see friends like I did or I could go get lunch with my mother.”
“The possibilities were endless, except for going to take a trip to the beach or something. I enjoyed [my days off], and I know others enjoyed them too.” While a trip to the beach or a week-long escape from work would be ideal, students were still content to simply make the most of the days off they were given. “It was definitely still a good break, but I would definitely say if we had more time like an actual spring break, that would’ve been preferred,” Sun said. “For the situation that we’re in, I think it was a good alternative.”