The Importance of Taking a Break
Sunglasses on a sandy beach
We’re approaching the end of summer in the United States, and many of us are trying to figure out if we can squeeze in a last-minute vacation before the onslaught of Pumpkin Spice Season (let’s be honest, Starbucks basically owns autumn at this point). As you look to your calendar and attempt to eke out a long weekend away, you’re probably fighting guilt about missing work and wondering whether it’s really worth it to take a break. Taking a vacation, or the infinitely more charming British version, ‘going on holiday’, is something we all love to talk or sing about (there are tons of great songs about vacations), but in the United States, we are really bad at actually going.
It could be easy to read those statistics and think, “look at our amazing work ethic!” but it would be far more accurate (though, less fun) to read those statistics and say, “look at our amazing heart disease!” or “look at our rapidly-eroding mental health!”
So, yes, vacation is important; it’s good for your body, soul, and playlist. But if that doesn’t sell it to you completely, here’s a story for you:
Once upon a time (two weeks ago, to be precise), I was on vacation with my family. I was cutting up some vegetables for our dinner and accidentally cut my hand. I quickly cleaned, applied antibiotic ointment to, and covered the cut. I did not get cellulitis, osteomyelitis, or sepsis and die. The end.
This was a short story thanks to someone else’s vacation. If Alexander Fleming hadn’t taken two weeks away from his lab in 1928, we wouldn’t have antibiotics, and my vacation (not to mention millions of lives) might have ended differently.
Your vacation might not result in the curing of a global disease, but at the same time, you can’t be certain that it won’t. That’s the beauty of time away; you can’t know what good will come out of it until you go. Fleming thought he was just going on a 2-week trip to Suffolk; Charles Darwin thought he would just take a cruise around the world; Archimedes thought he would just take a quick bath. History is full of amazing discoveries that were made because people took a break.
Even if you only discover how beautiful midnight in the mountains is, how the waves sound crashing on trillions of grains of sand, the stunning stillness of a secluded lake, or the bustling activity in the streets of a new city—isn’t that enough? Isn’t a short break from work worth it?
“Most people are on the world, not in it. ” – John Muir
