I'm not sure what in the hell to do with my spring break. It's coming up soon. March 15 ~ 24th. I could do a road trip to see friends in Boston, NYC, and Philly, some of whom I haven't seen in years. But spending three days driving, plus missing some obligations at home, nags at me. I'm considering taking up a coding bootcamp after graduation, seeing as how I have zero hard skills despite a shiny degree coming my way in May. (mk -- need any help with the site that someone with no experience but a working brain could help with?) Maybe I could spend spring break doing a trial run learning to code--practice what it's like working without supervision. Man, I hate this gray weather at home, though. Does anyone have any experience or heard stories about people with zero software development or data science skills taking up a bootcamp and becoming gainfully employed? -- Gymnastics is going frustratingly but well. There are six apparatuses or events for men, and I'm always eager to learn the next cool skill (double back tuck on floor, blind change on high bar, healy on parallel bars, etc.). But there is simply not enough time. With two 3-hour practices a week, I barely scratch the surface--I get on average less than an hour on each event, when considering the stretching, warmup, and conditioning I have to do. It's no wonder that gymnasts--even at age 11, which was when I last regularly competed gymnastics--train 16 or more hours a week. I've heard that the NCAA has a rule about their student-athletes practicing no more than 20 hours a week. For lots of sports, that's sufficient. For gymnastics, at the Elite or Olympic level, that's laughable. Every other country approaches 40 hour weeks. I can't imagine lots of Eastern European or Asian countries feeling the compunction towards putting their gymnasts to work obsessively. I believe Simone Biles only started college--an online college at that--at age 21. I want to continue training. Even though I'm 27, I don't feel like I'm limited at all by my joints or inflexibility.
As far as what to do with your spring break — I'm on spring break right now. I'm a lot younger than you are, and so probably have less disposable income (that's total speculation on my part), but I found that extremely low-cost vacations, at least by most people's standards, can be really rewarding. I found a really cheap plane ticket to Puerto Rico, and I've spent the last few days walking and hitchhiking around, hiking, and camping wherever I could find a spot to put my hammock. I've met a ton of really nice people, seen some beautiful places, and I've only spent around $15/day on average. Just a thought!
I might go to Puerto Rico. A disaster relief organization I've worked with in the past has an ongoing recovery project there. I might volunteer there for a few days. Thanks jl