by A.Rolak

Created on: August 03, 2009

Oh, can you feel that excitement building yet? Your heart beats a little quicker, your thoughts run around haphazardly in your head as you mentally explore unexplored locations and you can just feel yourself being pulled forward towards that once elusive vacation. As the word Paris (or wherever the vacation is) find its way fluttering across your lips you smile like a child on their way to see the circus. Anything you do to prepare, no matter how time consuming or frustrating is worth it because you know in a matter of weeks you will be leaving this all behind...temporarily. When you are preparing for your trip everything goes by in a snap. Plans are made weeks in advance in preparation of your departure and mentally you are already gone. Oh, we can hardly call that hard. The hard part about vacation is the tugging sadness that overcomes you as you look longingly out the airplane window at the your recently discovered paradise. You know that you are now leaving your newly discovered place of self-indulgence and freedom and heading back to the grown up world of responsibility...sigh. Your extra long weekend is over.

There are many things to be done before your vacation begins, but does it matter that you have to ask a friend to drop by everyday and check on the house and car, or that you have to find a place for the dog to stay. These are things that you most likely have had experience doing, so it is just a hurdle that you already know how to jump. Once you are one vacation, all that hard work into the preparation pays off. It's a different story once your vacation is over. The pile of work that's waiting on your desk has your name on it. As each coworker approaches you to catch up, you have to rehash your adventures, over and over again. It's fun telling your exciting stories the first ten times, but after that you are ready to send out a spam email recounting your vacation details to all the company staff to ward off any more encounters. You have get grinding on work: there is no more excuse to not be focused and there is no vacation to blame for your lack of concentration

A little break from the stresses of everyday life qualifies as a requirement for self happiness. Anything from a day off to go to the park to a month vacation romping around Europe will do the body some good. Why do you think we look forward towards the weekend so much? That itself is a mini vacation. Once Friday hits, the countdown starts till the end of the day. Work is hardly being done, although you make sure it looks like it is. Procrastination rears its ugly head as you trade in productivity for gab sessions about the weekend. All that can be dealt with on Monday, right? Of course, we all know what happens on Monday. That dread even starts on Sunday evening as you run down your list of to-do's. If the weekends are this hard than we can only surmise how the emotional roller-coaster ride would be like for vacation. As the last days are approaching you start thinking about the world back home. Now if that is not stressful enough I don't know what is.

The events leading up to the vacation seems irrelevant when compared to the vacation itself. The emotional attachment to that stress-free moment is just so hard to shake off. The dread of going back to the same routine: eat, work, sleep, grips you. Although your many coworkers are happy to have you back, they only show it by surprising you with more work to help you get back into the swing of things. Now that is what I call hard.

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