While this winter was less severe as our last, spring break could not have been more needed. Cramming relaxation time away from all the stress of college into a week can sometimes result in manic attempts to let loose or, conversely, refusal to move from bed.

However you decided to spend your spring break, all that matters is that you gave yourself an opportunity to break away from a routine and experience something new. For me, this new experience was a time to look inward and to celebrate the parts of my life that make me feel happy. I learned so much about myself over one week that will stay with me for a lifetime.

I do not mean this in some dramatic “Eat, Pray, Love” sense in that I reinvented myself, but rather in a way that forced me to stop rushing around and enjoy the point of my life I am at right now. College is a place to plan for the future, and, personally, I can let my present self take a lesser role in my future.

I took a vacation this spring break to Barcelona and Paris to visit friends, which gave me an opportunity to spend time being carefree and, later on, introspective.

I went to Barcelona with one of my friends to visit another friend. When I was planning the trip, she let me do whatever I wanted and was perfectly willing to accompany me on any of my tourist-y adventures. When we got there, she was equally as carefree. Traveling together was not only a blast, but also an opportunity for me to learn a lesson in letting loose.

I let loose not in the traditional spring break way, but in the way in which we walked around the city, ate meals and meandered through museums and monuments. Everything turned out OK, and no amount of planning was going to prevent all the bumps in the trip. We overslept one day, but that didn’t ruin the day by any means. We still did everything we had planned, and the extra hour probably made us happier people.

I learned how to enjoy where I am in the present and to not worry too much about the future. I am usually so worried about getting to places late (I show up to airports three hours ahead of time), and this micro-lesson was part of a series on not being occupied with what is to come.

In Paris, I was able to spend some time walking around the city while my friend was in class. In Boston, I walk everywhere with headphones on. But over break, I decided to leave the headphones at my friend’s apartment. In Boston, I block things out. I’ve heard the sounds of the city so much that they’ve become commonplace. I wanted to dive headfirst into the sounds of Paris, from the people trying to distract me in order to steal my money to the tour guides weaving through languages with ease.

I felt lost in a routine in Boston, and by immersing myself in Paris without headphones or data, I was able to force myself out of my comfort zone. Ultimately, my spring break was an attempt to break out of my comfortable space. People rely on things they are familiar with too often. I was especially guilty of this.

Being out of my comfort zone includes constantly having a distraction — usually my phone. It was a fantastic experience relying on my memory and Google Maps to find my way from Notre Dame to the Champs-Élysées. Furthermore, it was a lesson in my own competence. It was not as difficult as assembling IKEA furniture alone, but my walk around Paris was a reassurance that I was a functioning person — a characteristic that I occasionally question at school.

The learning does not stop during spring break, and in some cases, what you learn out of class is more important than what you learn in it. Besides learning quirks about the Catalans and the French, I learned some of my own quirks. I also learned valuable lessons in letting loose and introspection. I had some great memories, big and small, from hours of laughing over a meal with a bottle of wine to awe-inspiring amounts of beautiful art and architecture. Spring break was ultimately a lesson in living, which is something I really needed.