things you should know about vacation

well, i know that a lot of people out there reckon that vacations are the best part of their life. But, really, who of us has ever had a vacation?
Ever really wondered what it would be like to have a TRUE vacation, where you can literally DO NOTHING AT ALL? No kids, relatives, nagging about how you should be doing something useful with your time, taking out your girlfriend/wife for dinner/dancing/excursions and then having to subject yourself to a post-mortem assessment of the whole thing just because some detail didn't go as planned? In a very real sense, it would be a vacation, a very real one. So would you do it?
I've had a few of those and, quite frankly, i'd be happier never to have them again.
It's great to have a few days or a week off and, in truth, a week's vacation is a lot more refreshing than a month.
why is this? because a week of relaxation gives you time to not stress about things, visit a few token relatives and enjoy yourself while you realise the value of what you have in terms of freedom and enjoyment. A week is just long enough for you to do nothing at all as an excuse of just relaxing and enjoying versus a month where people start nagging you to do something practically from day one. also, a true vacation can be a lot more boring over long periods of time where even you start nagging yourself into doing something after a while because you are...so...BORED!
A period longer than two weeks' vacation gives you no time at all to relax. the nag factor is part of it, your brain starts melting down for lack of anything interesting to do and after a few days you try to find something to do to occupy your time. most of the interesting things you can do during your vacation take some time to learn about, so if you're at university and you spend your time learning about more stuff, it does not fall into break-time category anymore.
that and, well, after a few weeks your brain will do ANYTHING to keep itself from becoming neural play-do. so it starts to focus on memories, starting with those that are the most intense. most of my intense memories fall into the 'bad trip' category. as a result, i become moody, irritable and a bit depressed, not exactly a picture of perfection incarnate. of course, I'm not alone in this. This, of course, does not help my thinking dark thoughts (most intentional man-made disasters occurs because some random guy/girl had too much time on their hands. look at Joan of arc and dare to disagree). Then your brain turns to current woes and boy, does the fun start then. The past has nothing on the future in terms of thoughts of impending doom. result: if you know you have a 2-week + vacation, you start stressing from day 3. and anything you want to do during your vacation, well, vacations are procrastination central, anything you REALLY have to get done during your vacation, you're likely to wait until the last day. such is the sad truth of vacations: they stress you out so badly you WANT to go back to work (at least in my case) just to relax again as you wanted to in the first place... i can't wait 'til the end of this break. I'm fed up and want to learn shit again, get in touch with my friends again, feel ALIVE again.
i'm bored and ranting, if you haven't noticed. if you have read this far, thank you, for you are a better person than i'll maybe ever aspire to be.

p.s.: the sad truth is, i've spent most of my most relaxing vacation time in my university's library. That is the secret: you want to relax during your summer break, find a university library, sit down and don't get up until you have to go to work/lectures again. it will be, by far, more relaxing and free of consequence than anything you could ever do.