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Good morning, everyone. It’s a beautiful day in New Haven, and as I’m reflecting on what I’ve done over spring break, I’m quite happy with what I did and did not accomplish. I’ll explain more on that later.

Spring breaks have always been dull for me. It’s always involved going home and doing basically nothing. Maybe there would be a NYC trip with my parents, or a plant expedition with my mom, but it was nothing really out of the ordinary.

But this spring break? I bought myself a round-trip change of pace: New Hampshire. I’d be visiting some family up there in hopes of catching up on the hours of lost sleep and sanity I’d lost this semester. It would be my first time traveling alone too, and that was a little anxiety-inducing, not gonna lie. What if I got lost? What if I missed my station? What if, I don’t know, the train got stopped by bandits? (Indiana Jones is very educational about train threats!).

Then it’s Friday morning, and I’m zipping up my suitcase. I could do this. Probably. Maybe. It’s fine. Totally fine. I’m a woman in STEM. I melted fish. Surely, I could navigate a train station of all things.

So, I get to the train station and I’m walking toward the massive screen with the train times and such, and I find myself thinking:

Hey, I know that pair of boots. And that hairstyle. Wait a minute –

“C�����ٱ����?”

Caitlyn – thank God it was actually her and not some other random schmuck – turns around and waves at me, grinning.

“Oh, hey!”

I smiled back. This trip was off to a better start than I could’ve hoped.

By the time I arrived in Brattleboro, VT, I was fairly stuck to my seat. The scenery on the way up to New Hampshire was absolutely gorgeous: rolling, golden fields, farms filled with well-groomed horses, swishing their tails as they grazed. Caitlyn had gotten off in Hartford to catch a flight, leaving me with my laptop, a book that I didn’t touch, and homework that I was procrastinating on doing.

I was also sweating profusely as I hadn’t accounted for how stuffy a train can be. Yikes.

Needless to say, soon enough I’m swept up in the comfort of my aunt and uncle's home and I’m grinning ear-to-ear. Do I smell like a sweaty teenager? Probably, but whatever: I was far too happy to care. Yes, New Hampshire was not Florida, and the weather wasn’t fantastic (AKA no hiking or hammocking), but it was a place with family, and that was enough for me.

The only issue was that I had no clue how to take a break.

Originally, I was going to pitch research – meaning that I was basically cramming a ton of research and proposal writing instead of resting – but at one point, I sort of...gave in. And not as in “give up” (I didn’t finish my proposal for a couple of reasons), but rather I napped. I ate good food. I stayed up until 1 a.m. watching Jurassic World and had as much banana bread as I wanted to. I talked with my aunt about how dumb women’s pant sizes are and how hard it can be to accept one’s body. Other times, I spoke with my uncle about longevity, and he told me to not stress about it – literally. Stress denatures the proteins in your body.

I’m serious. Google it and find a PubMed or National Institutes of Health article. Be shocked. Tell your friend your discovery and see that they hit you with, “You didn’t know that?” and proceed to feel dumb. Anyhow.

This spring break was not only a chance for me to get some traveling done, but to also come to realize what rest actually is. Rest can be taking a lot of naps, yes, but it’s also spending your time with the people you love and doing the things you love. Unfortunately, I only came to this conclusion the last day I was there before heading back to UNewHaven. I’d spent the majority of my break doing my taxes (not friendly), doing “research” (AKA me going around in circles and not getting my brain to work at all), hanging out with Teddy – my aunt and uncle’s massive dog – and contemplating life.

There are many things that I need to work on for myself but being able to just get away from school for a while was worth it.

I hope everyone had a lovely break, and that the return to school is gentle.

With peace, love, and peanut butter,
Beatrice

Beatrice Glaviano ’26 is a nutrition sciences major at the University of New Haven.