Lull has sprung

Throughout college and later high school, it was often difficult to find motivation in the weeks leading up to spring break. Perhaps you can sympathize? Any snow/ice days out of school served as relentless teases of the temporary freedom to come. As that glorious week approached, my productivity waned, my energy collapsed, my distractions multiplied. Apathy reared its ugly head, and all usefulness seeped out of body.

But once break hit.. SWEET GLORY.
Sleeping in.
Justified Netflix binging.
Yummy foods.
TIME.

So much amazing time for trips or couches or hiking or craziness or laziness or whatever. Even last year when I spent a good portion of the break pounding out my honors thesis, having just a couple of days on the Outer Banks with Bryan were life-giving in a way even extended weekends rarely are. 

Sometime last fall it hit me that adult life generally doesn't include that fantastic period of time. How utterly dreadful it is to grow up.

Despite the lack of impending collegiate vacation, I've experienced a similar sense of lethargy in the past few days. It's as if my body has been programmed over the past five years (or I suppose 18 if you count pre-college) to anticipate, expect, and almost depend on the release of spring break. Frequently I've been checking my Google calendar and countdown app to view the days left until my short trip to Arkansas. It's become my fill-in spring break, and it's doing a lot to help me push through pre-break purgatory. 

I'm torn between feeling like a slave to this gift of a pattern and delighted that it still has presence in my life. The season of meh is strong enough that I don't care enough to figure out more feelings on this, but not strong enough that I'm not doing laundry or anything. Its probably fine. 

LAMBDA days until I get to Arkansas. 

(^That was absolutely not planned on the scheduling of this blog. But it makes me exceedingly happy.)

T-minus 40ish years until I'm a millionaire.

Last night I had a conversation with a friend about financial matters. He explained things about mutual funds, options, puts and calls, etc. I just opened a Roth IRA (like a proper adult!), and I sought his knowledge because he's been trading for some time now. The conversation was quite informational, but also overwhelming. We barely scratched the surface of it all, and the vocab list rivaled that of the Episcopal Church's.

[Sidenote: I'm gaining in my Episcosavvyness. I know where the sacristy is.]

By the end I concluded that the stock market sounds like an ultra-calculated casino. I may come from a gambling family, but my retirement fund is too fresh and small to toss around at the moment.

All trading aside, a Roth IRA has been something I've been thinking/researching about for months. According to this guy on Quora, it's the best way to get rich:

I'm not super interested in actually becoming a millionaire, but if it's that easy to have some late-in-life assurance for myself and my family, why the heck not?

There isn't an age limit on opening this account, so you should basically do it as soon as you have income, even if it isn't much. Compound interest is where it's at. 

Who knows, maybe I'll get brave and start trading in a few years. For now, mahjong gambling at home on Christmas sounds much more appealing.