Lisa's Blog

Peaceful day at the beach.

When my children were in elementary school, I decided to do extra school work in the summer. I figured why take the summer off? That’s not the way a real job is. That usually worked for about two weeks.

There were lots of kids in our neighborhood. With everyone else playing outside, it was hard to get any school work done. They were ringing the door bell. Playing in their yards with sprinklers. It was no secret that school was out.

Then I changed my mind and took the summer off. Their friends were begging them to go outside. What could I do?

In my mind, I thought this was not a good thing. Why take the summer off? Adults don’t take the summer off from work. Everyone else does their job for 12 months out of the year. Why should students think they can take the summer off?

Well, that was a long time ago. Now, I see things differently.

Today, I’m working at the UMass Dartmouth library and it’s pretty quiet. Well, not really, there is a ton of construction going on. Let’s just say there are few patrons using the library for studying.

This is my second summer in the library. The first summer I worked in the library, I was shocked with the quietness. It seemed like I should be doing something.

All those years of “wanting” to homeschool in the summer came back to me. It just didn’t feel right to have a break in the summer. I surmised that the work ethic should never take a vacation.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

One summer, I took a summer class and worked 30 hours a week for three months. Without a break, I entered the fall semester to a full load of four classes. And then it hit me.

I got the swine flu in 2009. Who knows if this would have happened to me or not. But it seemed like when I started my classes in the fall, I wasn’t rested. I wasn’t clear-headed. It was just one more thing on my plate, along with other family obligations.

Now, when I look back at that summer/fall I think that maybe I was a little stressed because I didn’t take a break. All I did was go, go, go. Yes, I wanted to handle it. I wanted to work. I wanted to hold down a good-paying job, but it didn’t work.

Today, I’m happy to take a break. I can see that when we take a break, or a vacation, it soon wears off. You may notice how kids are bored in the summer. Two days after school ends it starts, “I’m bored.”

This last fall, after taking a much needed break, I entered class in the fall with a fresh outlook. Classes went well, I had taken a break and was able to think clearly.

The lesson learned is that we do need to take breaks. I thought we didn’t, but I was wrong. Took 47 years to figure that out.

Well, it’s important to be able to say, I was wrong. Even I can learn new things.