We are just back from a 10 day vacation in Kerala. On the last day of the vacation, I started feeling bad that the vacation is going to end and I have to get back home. What is a vacation supposed to be? a) Is it a tick-marking exercise of visiting different destinations? b) Is it to expand one's collection of experiences (good, not-so-good and bad)? c) Is to relax and unwind from a hard period of professional work, so that one can get back to work with renewed vigour? or d) Escape.
I certainly seem stressed towards the end of the vacation - a sense of panic that it is about to end - and a sense of urgency to extend the clock in the last few hours! The significance of my vacation seems to be (a) or (d). It certainly is not (c) as it has been professed in various advertisements and travel guidebooks. My wife on the other hand seems to be gung-ho about getting back to work on the last day of the vacation. Invariably, my vacation extends in a long sluggish tail a few days after I return - so I plan to come back on a Friday or Saturday. There are some who feel that work should be like a vacation and even take work to a vacation. For these it is most likely reason (b). Unfortunately, I do not belong to this category and that creates a veil of guilt that vaguely envelopes as a spoiler for the other physical thrills of a vacation. I remember a regular feature in Reader's Digest called "All in a Day's Work" - Maybe that is a good philosophy for me to feel less stressed out about work and vacation. Whatever the reason, maybe I should not think so much and just take a break!
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2 comments:
Hey, loosen up! It's just a vacation, for heaven's sake. Don't over intellectualise.
Precisely my point of writing. If I could loosen up, I wouldn't write it....
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