Taking a Much-Needed Vacay
Lately, my husband and I have been desperately hankering for a vacation.
It doesn’t have to look like this (although wouldn’t that be nice??):
It just needs to be somewhere away from the stresses of the city, with ample supplies of wine and time to barbecue and lay on the beach. Doesn’t that sound heavenly?
We work very hard and our life can be a bit frazzled at times, so some time off is definitely necessary now and again. I’ve even got some really affordable and fun-sounding plans in the works, but now I’ve hit a roadblock — how to schedule it.
My question for you fellow actors, designers, and other gig-type peeps out there is: how do you find the time to take vacations?
In an industry that’s so fast-paced and where great opportunities come up so last-minute, it seems a bit overwhelming to say, “Well, I’m just going to peace out to the beach for a week in June.” I never know what I’m doing three months from now, which can be frustrating for someone who loves to plan, but what are you gonna do? As far as a vacation goes, though, I’m afraid that if I wait much longer to make plans for June, our options will be severely limited
So please share with me your “how to keep from being burnt out” strategies. Do you just book out with your agent way in advance and say no to gigs that conflict with the vacation, or do you suck it up and wait to book a trip until the very last minute? I’m dying to know.
The Green Room 
You can always loosely plan for a vacation in June and then look online for last-minute deals once you know which week would work best for you. If you don’t have a specific place in mind, you can always find great deals on Websites like itravel2000.com (etc.) for the Caribbean or somewhere else that looks kind of like your picture. 🙂
Even if an actor was to have the most glorious career ever, would that person want to get to the end of their life and know that they did nothing and went nowhere that did not involve work. Ugh, it sounds horrible!
I think the overarching key is to unplug and sometimes you have to bite the bullet and say “I’m planning something and it is this date to this date period.” It is crucial to know that your own personal sanity and need to refill the well is not only essential, but may just be the prescription that allows you propel even further in your career once you return.
Now, there’s always some sort of polarity in life so perhaps you plan a trip and then are offered a most amazing project. My guess is that you’d have no problem canceling that trip in order to take a film role in a major motion picture! Even if you were to lose $5000 on a trip and yet have the role of a lifetime, I imagine that that’s a pretty good deal.
People in careers such as these do not have the luxury of ascribing two weeks to a vacation that will be set in stone; however, we also do not have the luxury of never giving ourselves a break. If we go that route, we actually will end up the ones broken in the end.
What great advice, Rhonda. Thanks for the well thought-out response. It really made me feel better about planning something! 🙂
I think you’ve got to just place yourself out of pocket for those dates. My event schedule at work gets pretty crazy so I book vacations way ahead so I can possibly schedule around it. But if I’m out, I’m out and I don’t worry about it. You have to get time away so you can refresh yourself!