Chat with the chief

Sprint to finish

Now that we as students have returned to campus following Thanksgiving break, I hope I’m not alone in stating that I am nearly spent.

The mental, emotional and physical burden of enduring a college semester has me approaching a breaking point, and meticulously counting down the days until winter break.

I believe that the timing of Thanksgiving break has a lot to do with my imminent collapse.

Consecutive weeks of an uninterrupted school and work routine make the pages of the calendar seem to flash by in a blur. I went into the break astounded by the fact that November is coming to a close, but awoke for class this morning baffled by the fact that there are still several bitterly cold morning walks to lecture before finals even begin.

Unfortunately it’s about 395 years too late to reschedule the relative time of year that Thanksgiving falls on, so there is little chance that its accompanying break from school will be rescheduled.

Because of the amount of family time and travel—accompanied by the obligatory stampeding midnight shopping frenzies—that occur, it’s also implausible to skip Thanksgiving break entirely.

Therefore, the only solution is to make the most of the extended weekend break that we are allotted for Thanksgiving.

To do exactly that, I’d recommend ignoring all familial obligations and designating every minute of free time to catching up on sleep. Your extended family, which likely gathers strictly for holiday events, only cares to ask you about school anyway. This means that ignoring their queries in the name of bettering your productivity in school will not only be understood, but respected by your elders.

Also disregarding homework assigned during the break is a must. If a professor decided to assign coursework over the break, he or she does not understand the concept of vacations, and should therefore be expected to never take a sick day and teach classes on Saturdays and Sundays as well.