Sydney Scott, a freshman at Southeastern Louisiana University, continues her series on her life and times as a college student. View college life through her eyes and learn alongside her as she journeys to her future career. Share with the students in your life - this post is great for everyone.

“Happy March!!”, said no one ever.

It’s March, or as I like to call it, the weirdest month of the year (besides September, but I’ll save that for the September blog post).

“Why is it the weirdest month of the year?” you ask.

Because it’s March!

March is an “in-betweener” month. It’s the 3 pm of academia, if you will. It’s the point in the semester where you resort to watching the second hand on the wall clock crawl forward at a glacial speed, because there is nothing better to do right now in AP Bio II, if we’re being honest with ourselves.

At least it’s finally spring! Oh, wait, what? I’m going to need a jacket tomorrow? It may snow? Well, at least it’s finally sunny… oh, it’s going to monsoon next week? The whole state of Louisiana is under a flood watch? Amazing.

“The weather doesn’t bother me,” you say.

Well, at the very least, we can probably agree on this: March is the weirdest month for school. It’s the point in the semester where we are all burned out and tired, yet we have ten tests next week, and… what’s that?

That’s your History teacher telling you that you have an essay on King Henry IV’s War-End Efforts, 1200 words, due next Monday. Cool.

And then, like Shrek showing up at that tower to bring Fiona home, Spring Break rides in on a beautiful white horse (donkey?) to save the day.

Spring Break matters! --And not just for the economy of Pensacola, Florida. It matters to our brains.

Spring Break offers us a time to relax. It gives us a moment to become human again. Spring Break is the Marie Kondo we never knew we needed. It’s a time for us to pull it together so we can get through the rest of the semester.

So what’s in a break?

A mental break serves as a good time to become inspired and productive again. This article from The Atlantic, and this one from Forbes.com, cite studies that prove that we are incredibly more productive when we have the opportunity to recharge.

As with all good things, breaks come to an end… except usually with Spring Break, it’s more like an 80-ish-to-50 on the speedometer when you see a State Trooper ahead. In fact, it's super easy to let Spring Break come and go without actually doing anything to benefit yourself (unless you call binging Netflix in a dark room for a week “benefitting yourself”). Am I right, or am I right?

So in order to make the most out of your break, I present to you my “Must-Do” list, so you can come back from Spring Break, with a sharpened axe, ready to chop down the tree that is the rest of the semester.

#1: KonMari Your Car: How many times in the past month have you said “Oops! Sorry about that!” and had to move a bunch of trash out of your back seat so a friend could sit? No one likes cleaning out their car, but once you get it over with, it’ll feel so good! Plus, you might even find some cash in a cup holder, or your “missing” senior ring (you know, the one that you swore to your mom you didn't lose and have just been silently praying you’d find it soon)!

#2: Give Your Backpack Some TLC: Remember back in August when you had a whole five pens and didn’t have to beg anyone for the looseleaf paper right before a quiz? Good times. Do yourself the favor of spending five dollars at your local Dollar Tree and restock on your school supplies. Better yet, maybe even sort out that folder in your backpack that is overflowing with old graded tests. It’ll feel so nice to look in your backpack and not have to wonder what is what. Cue royalty-free dream montage music now.

#3: Knock Out Those Projects: I hate to say it, but I have to. Finish those outstanding papers and projects the first day of break. Now that you hate me for saying that, give me a second to prove my point. I know: there are a thousand other things you can think of that are better than finishing an English paper on a Saturday during spring break. Once you’re done, though, you won’t have to scramble to finish assignments the night before you go back to school! You won’t dread going back to school as much, too.

#4: Take a No-Phone Break: Once you have finished the above, take a no-phone day. At the very least, just turn off your snapchat notifications. We all like to turn a blind eye to how much time we spend on our phones, but truly, it ends up being so relaxing if you have a day that isn’t spent glancing down at your notifications. Go start on that tan you’ve been talking about since December.

Spring Break can be exactly what you want it to be, so why not use it as a chance to get yourself together before heading back out there? Instead of scrambling to get everything done last-minute, take some time out to organize so you can effectively recharge and relax.

This year, give yourself the break you deserve!