It’s Friday at last; you’re tired and want to just shut yourself in your room and collapse.

“TGIF!” you say this to yourself, but then you find yourself at a party you don’t really want to be in. You don’t want to let down your friends or miss the excitement, the potential of meeting more people. But sometimes you wonder if you could just take a break from it all. I’m here to tell you that it’s not just okay to take a break – you could actually find yourself enjoying the downtime you create for yourself. So go ahead, make a plan for the upcoming weekend and have fun by yourself!

➨ Let’s figure out what you could do for a weekend without parties. To break it down day by day, let’s start with Friday!

Friday

Whether or not you have classes or work on Friday, it is the first day of the weekend you have time to relax. Now, I work on Fridays usually from early afternoon till late night. When I get home, I like to jump in the shower. Stripping off those sweaty work clothes, or that nice outfit from school, and jumping into the shower will make you feel really good. Throw on some of your favorite music and let the water run over you for more than twenty minutes, and you will feel your stress washing away. A warm bath and candlelight will do the trick as well.

After your shower or bath, slip into fresh comfortable clothes and relax on your bed or couch with a book or a movie. If you’re hungry, have your favorite food – pizza, Chinese, whatever it may be – delivered to you. If you’re tired, just go to bed and catch up on lost sleep. You’ve worked hard all week long and deserve a good night’s sleep.  

Saturday

Saturday is your first full day and you will be ready to make the most of it if you got good sleep the night before.  Don’t waste your day in bed. Start the day early and keep yourself moving.  Make yourself some breakfast if you have the ingredients – vegetable omelette, oatmeal or parfait are perfect to start the day with.  

What can you do the rest of the day? You can go to the gym, go for a run around the neighborhood, or throw on your favorite chill outfit and take a nice walk to start the day  If you’ve chosen to spend the whole day by yourself, you can:

• Explore parts of the city you have never seen before but always wanted to.
• Browse your favorite stores for deals and treat yourself to something new – clothing, shoes, books etc. Remember to check for local discounts if you are shopping locally, and always bring your student ID with you to take advantage of student discounts.
• Get a haircut or splurge on a mani/pedi.  Tip – Don’t be afraid to ask if they offer student discounts.
• Stop at a cafe, a bakery or ice cream store and indulge yourself.  Bring a book with you and read, or just engage in people watching.  
• Volunteer at school or in your neighborhood.
• Start a new hobby.

In the evening, you could meet your friends for dinner at a restaurant followed by a movie, or just one or the other. You could host a potluck dinner or suggest that to a friend who could host. You could go on a date and have a romantic evening. You could even do what you did on Friday evening and just relax.

Sunday

Sunday is a good day to sleep in and have a leisurely start to the day. When you wake up though, make your day productive. Make yourself some breakfast and go for a run or walk. (Depending on the time you wake up, lunch may be your first meal of the day.) When you come back, take a shower or turn on some music to fill your room and start doing a quick clean of your apartment, dorm room, or house. Having a nice clean house to work in, and to return to after a long day at school or work, is a great feeling. Make sure you also throw all your dirty laundry together too. Sunday is the perfect day to do laundry to prepare yourself for the rest of the week! There is nothing more irritating than realizing your favorite shirt, or the outfit you planned to wear, is not clean because you forgot to do laundry over the weekend.

Once your clothes are in the wash, start on your homework for the week. Getting your homework, or the bulk of it, done on a Sunday will make the school week feel so much better when it actually happens. Prioritize your homework based on the amount of work and the due dates, and you will be in good shape for the rest of the week.

Now with the house cleaned, the laundry warm and ready to be put away, and all your homework more or less completed for the week ahead, grab a snack, plop yourself down in front of the television and start folding some laundry. Take Sunday night to completely relax again and then get a good night’s sleep for the week to come.

I am all for letting loose and having a weekend to party the nights away. But sometimes it feels good to just relax and have a quiet weekend. We can use the weekend to catch up on sleep, homework, chores, etc. and prepare ourselves for the week to come.  

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