This week's column

Don’t Call it a Come Back

Taking breaks is always necessary: winter break, spring break, timeouts. Even my Wii asks me to put the controller down regularly, but in a city where there is plenty of time to stop and smell the roses (or in Corpus’ case, a hibiscus) how do we make the most of our breaks, and in the end, will it help us or hurt us?

            Tiger Woods ended 2011 with his first win in two years. Woods claimed the past season slump was due to leg injuries and not enough practice. There has not been enough time for people to forget about his nine affairs to remember. In fact Woods’ only chance at redemption may lie in his performance in the Abu Dhabi Championship and whether he aces Rory Mcllory, Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer right out of first place. I could certainly over look Woods’ personal flops as long as his professional game was back in swing; Golf really isn’t the same with out him.

            I can think of plenty of times where taking a break from personal issues helped me rebuild my studies and myself better than before. Of course sometimes taking breaks from school can be a different story. Sometimes you find yourself taking a semester off, to experience the world, only to come back and realize how much work you now need to get done. Other times you have a winter break that you wish would never end, because the thought of agonizing over grades and tests seems like too much.

            Another prime example of needing to take a break would be long time Packers’ quarterback Brett Favre. Since 2002 Favre was running through the retirement rumor mill, skipping summer training camps then coming back and extending his NFL records. It wasn’t until Favre was traded to the Jets in 2008, cut from the roster, picked up by the Vikings, and sustained numerous injuries did he realize the time for retirement had come.

            I once dated a football player at a rival school who took a season off from football for surgery and then returned to help the team with one of the best seasons of his career (they beat my school that year). As humans we need water breaks, lunch breaks and mental health days. As students we live for happy hours and summer breaks. Aren’t we are all looking for a break from something? Careful though, sometimes we pull a Michael Jordan and take a break only to realize we were right where we needed to be all along.