Tag: break

Winter Break Beginnings

Elizabeth S Leave a comment

Today is December 20th. What is its significance? Last week, some lucky students already finished final exams, projects, and essays, so it seemed like winter break had already started. For many others, however,  the past few days were full of cram sessions, late nights, and more, leading up to the end of the semester. Today marks the last day of examinations, last day in the dorms, and last day of the 2019 fall semester. I hope everyone’s finals went well, but now that they’re over, I’m looking forward to winter break.

What are your plans for the next two-three weeks? I’m sure for many students, more sleep is one thing to look forward to. If you need more reasons to appreciate the time away from school, I’ve compiled a list of reasons why winter break is so great.

  1. You can take a break from studying and homework.
    • The relief that washed over my face after I finished my last final was only matched by the nervousness of viewing my final grades. Finals are awful, but they mark the end of the semester, which means no assignments over winter break! Take that much-needed studying hiatus to catch up on things you enjoy, like sleep.
  2. You get to spend time with family.
    • Okay, maybe you’re not the biggest fan of your somewhat annoying second cousin or your excruciatingly nosy aunt, but the holiday season is the perfect time to be with loved ones. I love my UM family here in Ann Arbor, but I appreciate the time to be at home with my parents. I also look forward to playing board games with my extended family, watching the new Star Wars film with my siblings, and simply enjoying the company of loved ones.
  3. There’s plenty of delicious food.
    • Yes, we all love those dining hall tendies – there’s even a student-made website for keeping track of when and where chicken tenders are being served. However, the home cooked meals and occasional restaurant excursions (courtesy of the parents, of course) have been missed. During winter break, there are plenty of cookies and specialty foods due to the holidays. That goes for beverages, as well. I can’t wait to look like Baby Yoda all cuddled up with a blanket and mug of hot chocolate. 🙂
  4. There’s time for hobbies you’ve missed.
    • College life is busy life. I used to LOVE reading in my free time, but when someone asks me what book I’ve read recently, nothing but textbooks come to mind. Winter break provides a bit of free time to catch up on all the hobbies you’ve missed while you’ve been busy studying, working, and doing all those extracurricular activities. Some of my friends have already lined up the shows to binge watch before returning to campus in January, while others are preparing to get down to business with arts and crafts.
  5. It’s the holiday season.
    1. The next two weeks feature numerous holidays, including Hanukkah, Kwanza, and more. As someone who celebrates Christmas, I always love this time of year. Colorful lights, Christmas music, and family gatherings are some of my favorites parts of the season. Whatever festivities you celebrate during break, I wish you happy holidays!

 

What’s your favorite winter break activity? Comment below!

Last paradise

themichiganarchitect Leave a comment

Fall break… it’s finally here, ya’ll!

We wolverines have been dying from the start of the school year with the conflicts between our ambitions, future aspirations, interpersonal relationships, and academic adjustments. Or at least, this is what most wolverines would say honestly, if you asked them.

We are toiling daily, barely living our lives here. Classes are a challenge, maybe feeling increasingly less so if we are adjusting appropriately, yet our hygiene suffers. We barely exercise, let alone shower, we get sick more easily, and (if lucky) eat a meal a day.  But I suppose this description of college life is different depending on who you ask; but generally everyone here is busy ALL the time, no joke.

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So, break is here. Chill guys!

Use this to actually take a break from everything; you’ll need this time to relax and refuel, as it is necessary to keep us from burning up from over-exhaustion. Yeah… sounds cliche, but things are cliche for a reason; typically because they’re true.

So, drop your homework, grab your buddies, travel, GET OUT AND HAVE FUN! LIVE YOUR LIFE! Even if that means staying indoors and marathon-ing Neflix shows, just do anything that you enjoy doing and have been abandoning for school for such a long time. Even if you’re a workaholic and decide to drop all of your responsibilities for just a few hours, hey, at least it’s still a few hours’ work of refreshing your own mind. Like the saying goes, “Time enjoyed is not time wasted.”

 

Musings of a College Student Home for the Holidays

Hannah Levine Leave a comment

To all of my friends and family, have you ever noticed how the people we are together are so different from the people we are when we’re apart? Life feels so unusual and yet so the same whenever I leave school and go back home, or leave home and go back to school. I know coming back to the people I know and love and care about is great, but sometimes I wonder how I can be a different person at home from the person I am at school, but both people can still be me. It’s not that I’m any less happy at one place or the other; I’m just different. Being at school makes me want to write and read and hang out with friends in trendy coffee shops while we plan our escape to Alaska. Being at home makes me want to paint and explore and lay around in bed with my dog and the small cluster of high school friends who I can still call mine while we plan our escape to Alaska.

Hey, on a side note, does anyone want to go to Alaska? No reason just wondering.

Okay, back to my profound musings on the strange internal and external changes that come about when you change the people you’re with and the location you’re with them. I’ve been thinking about all of these things, and I know I can’t be the only one. Do you ever get lonely surrounded by friends because you realize those aren’t the friends you’re used to being with? It’s not a sad kind of lonely, just an outsider kind of lonely. Sometimes that happens to me after a long break like this. I come back to school and I’m bouncing with joy to see everyone, but it’s just slightly off. I used to think it was just a product of the changing scenery, but now I think it’s a product of the changing scenery and getting older.

Getting older is what people say when they’ve gotten older, which is kind of funny. When we were younger we’d hear about people getting older all the time, but it didn’t really mean anything. They’d tell us we’d have the best times ahead of us, our whole futures, until one day those best times, those futures, would become pasts, memories, photographs in dusty frames. That thought used to make me sad, but not anymore. You see, you don’t have to be so happy you could do somersaults all the time. Everyone gets sad sometimes and I think it’s good to acknowledge that, especially when you’re stuck in the newfound-college-break-boredom of our parents’ houses. We can take this time for break to recuperate, spend time with our home friends and family, but in the end, we’re still going back. And after that, we’ll be going someplace else. And that’s all a part of life. And we’re all so lucky to have these opportunities to become different people when we go different places, but to always remain ourselves.

So because I know how very special it is to have people who help me be all the different forms of me, I want to say a few things.

To the students still finishing up the semester, I wish you good luck and happy post-exam frolicking. I’m sure you’ll kill it.

To my professors this semester, thank you. It really and truly was an excellent term and that’s largely because of you.

To my school friends, whether I met you in Ann Arbor, Oxford, or Chamonix, thank you. That other humongous part of having an excellent term was all due to you. You make going to school fun and educational for wholly different reasons than the ones I attribute to my professors.

To my home friends, thank you. You always make coming home rewarding and strange, but fun all the same. I know I can always count on you to visit me in Ann Arbor when I really need you, or to at least send a hilarious gif to pick my spirits up.

To my family, you’re weird and fantastic and you should know that I love you for making me weird and fantastic, too.

To everyone else reading, maybe one day we’ll meet and you can help me become a different me, too. If not, you’ve helped someone else become different forms of themselves, and I know they are grateful to have known you.