My Idea of a perfect day

I returned to campus after Winter Break this Thursday.  After every break, my friends and I catch up with each other. Some of my friends traveled, but I learned that most of them stayed at home. I too stayed at home. Frankly, I felt like I hadn’t “done much” over break; maybe the fact that I stayed at home made me feel so. Perhaps I expressed this feeling of discontent in our discussion as one of my friends asked me, what would you do in a perfect day? 

Off the top of my head, I would say that a perfect day encompasses waking up in the morning and going for a morning hike then relaxing with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. A relaxing and carefree day seems perfect to me. However, these past three weeks have led me to believe there are several kinds of “perfect” days. This winter break, I may not have experienced the perfect “relaxation” beach day, but I did experience another type of day that was, in its own right, pretty perfect as well. 

Yesterday, simulated a pretty typical day during break. I started my day off with a two-hour study session on Saturday. I completed some of my homework which was followed by a walk to Whole Foods with two of my closest friends. We did some grocery shopping, picked up drinks at a cafe, and returned to campus. I had my lunch after that, studied for another hour, and then headed to the gym. After the gym, I finished my physics homework and began to do some math homework/review. Having finished my homework for the weekend, I began preparing for some tests I’m going to take outside of school. At 10:00 PM, having felt pretty accomplished and productive, so I decided to go to the casual dance in the den on campus. I returned after an hour, took a shower, and called it a night. I would say yesterday made me very happy, even though I did not find myself relaxing on a beach.

What I overlooked this break was how a perfect day was really any day that made me feel happy. On one hand, I definitely enjoy those days at the beach where I do just about nothing except read and go for a swim. Those days definitely make me smile when I think about them. On the other hand, I felt happy coming out of winter break as well. I would wake up, study for a bit, read, go out for lunch, get some exercise in, do some more studying, watch a movie, and talk with my parents; being productive truly made me very happy. What would you do in a perfect day? Sure, by default I might say relax at a beach, do some shopping, go for a hike, or read a good book, but recently, I’ve experienced that a productive day can be just as perfect as a relaxing one.