After being extremely sick for the first week of school and getting much-needed rest, I am returning to writing post-winter break for a bit of truth that no student would be happy to face: winter break does not always do a body good.
It breaks our rhythm.
As a graduating senior, I’m still trying to find my way with time management. It’s embarrassing to admit because I’m so close to the real world. Odds are: a lot of us are still learning it. What are we going to do with all of this free time winter break gives us? It’s almost inconvenient to go from penciling your schedule hour by hour between clubs and classes to 24 hours a day, seven days a week of not a single responsibility. So then, we watch Netflix documentaries until 4 a.m. and sleep until noon. It’s not really a good system to effectively function as a person.
Forgetting time management.
Speaking of all of this free time, you have to manage it. If you do too much over winter break, you likely won’t feel rested. If you do too little, you likely won’t feel ready to return to school when the time comes. A lot of the anxiety that I experienced over break came from having too much free time over break and not doing much with it. When I did too much, I would feel exhausted. Apparently, this strange phenomenon is not super uncommon. Too much of the time, us crazy busy students measure our success by our productivity.
It gives you a taste of being a kid again.
After living by yourself or with a group of friends, returning home puts a little strain on your independence. You’re always going to be a child to Mom and Dad. So, when you get back home for four straight weeks, maybe you’ve got to adjust to a curfew or you’re urged to clean your room more regularly. Although, there’s some benefit to it — I didn’t have to do laundry for the entire break.
Too much cold, not enough time.
This is the key difference between summer break and winter break. You could say that everything listed above applies to summer break, but everything is so much harder in the cold: pumping gas, going to the grocery store, walking the dog. It’s not an unknown phenomenon that the weather impacts mood. Not to mention, summer break is good for a job to busy ourselves, but the few weeks that we have for winter break is not enough time to find a quick job to make pocket change — even less time when you consider the holidays.
So, what do we do with these weird winter break dilemmas? Keep a calendar, even if there’s not much on it; the practice will help with easing back into a school schedule. Talk over your independence with your parents. You are growing. They went through it. They will understand. Try to remain upbeat in the poor weather. Buy a decent pair of gloves. I hope you are all faring well with the strange transition back. Hopefully, we will all get back into the swing of things soon.
Kirsten Magas is a fourth-year student majoring in English with minors in journalism and creative writing. KM868219@wcupa.edu.