Dear Mom, for winter break this year I want to travel to the couch, I want to explore the void of rom-coms on Netflix, I want to enjoy the luxuries of whatever snack I can salvage from our pantry. That’s it. I don’t want to go to Disneyland or Sun Valley or on some random vacation. I am hiding my passports and staying home. 

I understand that vacation is supposed to be a gift. My mom pays for me to be able to experience so many once in a lifetime opportunities. I am so lucky and so grateful. But, no matter how much I wish I could enjoy it, sometimes, I hate vacation. 

I love traveling and going to the airport. I love seeing new places and experiencing new things. What I don’t love is that my break is sacrificed for the sake of these experiences. Vacation is not just expensive in terms of money but my precious, fleeting break is just another cost. We spend every cold, busy fall day counting down the days till winter break, but when it finally comes we don’t actually get to take a real break.

Instead of relaxing, we spend our painfully short winter hiatus traveling, packing, and doing vacation things. Every day must be worth the money. My family spends hours on the beach, gets to the slopes at 7 a.m., stays open to close at the park, it is endlessly go, go, go.

I truly think that if you are going to go on a trip it is important to make the most out of it. I am the kind of person to be at the gate of Disneyland at sunrise, and limp out in the dark. So, in order to actually get any break out of my winter break, I just need to stay home. I need to cuddle on my couch with the festive throw I bought at Target and fill the void of pain left by the stresses of high school with hot chocolate and dollar store candy canes.

My perfect break is one filled with no plans, nothing to do, and time to kill. 

I want to deep clean my deeply neglected room, binge watch a tv show with my mom and just breathe.

Plus, we all know that at least three teachers are going to throw themselves on a high horse of supremacy and assign us piles of homework to complete over the break. But when I go on vacation after vacation, I simply have no time.

My mom values my education, but there is no way she will let me skip out on “family time” for a science project during vacation. She will not be helping me review vocab on our way down the mountain. It just is not happening. There is this idea that when you are on vacation you don’t work, and if we are on vacation during break then we can’t get anything done.

I just don’t have the energy to sacrifice my break to an overpriced vacation that I will be too tired to even enjoy. Saving up, packing, planning, just to push yourself to the max every single day under the pretense of a “break”, it’s just not worth it.

Seriously Mom, we can celebrate the holidays in our living room, it won’t kill us.

With love, your travel-worn daughter.