So I'm at the American Airlines counter at Logan, glaring at the man behind the computer, who glares back at me. It's 6 a.m. and I have slept for approximately one and a half hours. Behind me are three screaming babies, two barking German shepherds and a Spanish-speaking group of people with twenty gigantic cardboard boxes, to name the loudest occupants of the line.

Finally, Mr. Congeniality behind the computer snaps at me, "Ma'am, I don't see a reservation for you going to McAllen, Texas this morning. I do, however, seem to have two reservations for you going to San Francisco this afternoon." He looks at the screen again and smiles. "We've also just sent your bags to Midland, Texas."

Traveling is not exactly my fort.

But as spring break approaches and the desire to get as far away from Cambridge as possible begins pulsing through my blood with more intensity than usual, I'm prepared to face the trauma of traveling once again. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

In less than a week, most of the student body will be let loose on the world in a desperate nine-day attempt to flee Harvard. Some people will be drunk beyond belief in some tropical paradise. Some will be jetting through Europe on a whirlwind trip. Some will be fighting for the remote at home. Some will be puttering around the dorms, finishing up thesis work or enjoying having the common room all to themselves. But regardless of where we go or what we do, we all share one intention: to seek some solace from the stress that invades our daily lives.

Unfortunately, most of us will apply our less than charming Harvardian habits to our vacations. Try as we might to do everything we want to during the break, everything will not always go as planned. Most of us will return happy but exhausted (and possibly hung over), jealous that everyone else's trip was more fun and exotic than ours. A good number of us will also head into vacation with that usual chip on our shoulders, feeling that we deserve the best time possible and that we will strive to any extent to get it.

But now that we've identified the problems with spring break, is there any way to prevent them from happening?

Of course there is. The most important thing to do from March 26 through April 4 is to be realistic. Don't expect to do all the sightseeing or shopping (or, yes, sourcebook reading) you want to do. Try anyway and enjoy what you accomplish, but resist abusing yourself for not doing it all. You'll have more than enough time to do that during the rest of the year.