It’s that time of year again. College students, depending on how lucky you are, have only one or two short weeks left until the Spring semester starts up in full swing. That means a brand new schedule, new professors, new buildings to learn, and a new list of things to be done.

Don’t get me wrong, I will be overly content to get back to school, see my friends, and get into a routine again. Unfortunately, going back to school also means a whole lot of stress. Students are stuck in the forever struggle of loving break and wishing they were back at school, which probably has something to do with the human tendency to want something we can’t have but that’s a topic for another day.

Winter break causes a lot more turmoil than Summer break for many reasons. It’s shorter, for one. While it is packed with holiday celebrations, those are stuffed into the first half of break, leaving the second half with nothing to look forward to except the inevitable return to school. Essentially, for the last two to three weeks of break, we start to realize how much we have to do and the short amount of time we have left to relax.

While laying in bed at night stressing about school is a blast, I’ve been trying to focus on the positive aspects of getting back to school. Like the aforementioned reasons of seeing your friends and getting back to a routine. There’s also living on your own, continuing to explore the city in which you go to school, and learning (believe it or not, some people do look forward to that).

Because of the foreseeable amount of work to be done, going back to school can be a downer. However, all of those positive aspects always outweigh the bummer that is schoolwork. Inevitably, after you make it through those first few days of classes, it’ll feel like you never left. Then you have a million other things to look forward to, like 3-day weekends or Spring Break. There’s always an excuse to have a negative outlook towards something, but if you take a second to evaluate that thought you’ll realize you’re probably exaggerating a little.