After the welcome Thanksgiving break, finals season is now in full swing. As papers and exams pile on, I can feel the bubble around campus closing in. Anyone who goes to a small school in a small town knows this feeling. It is easy to get sucked into the world on campus and lose sight of anything outside the gates. I have found myself doing this recently- my day consists of walking three minutes to the dining hall, another two minutes to class, a minute to the library, and four minutes back to my room in a continuous loop- why would I even need to worry about anything except what is for lunch today?

While the main purpose of college is to get a comprehensive education to prepare for an eventual career, it is also supposed to be fun. Different people balance the fun/productivity ratio in different ways, which can be seen by silhouettes in the library windows on a Friday night above the posses of tipsy students walking to parties. No matter which of these people you are (you can be both!), it is far too easy to take it all too seriously. While it is important to get your homework done and do well on exams, that cannot be your whole life. The same goes for partiers- there is no problem with enjoying your weekends (maybe a little too much), but it is important to take a step back every once and a while and recognize that this campus is not all there is.

I write this as a reminder to myself as much as anything else. I have been putting too much weight on what I will wear to a dance or how many friends I have here. College is not the whole world. It is home for right now but there is so much going on elsewhere that we must be mindful of. Reading the newspaper, checking up on friends and family from home, and even volunteering in your local community are great ways to escape the campus bubble, even for a little while. A small campus can be stifling, but it does not have to be. Especially as we approach the holiday season, it is important to be aware of larger world issues and to do what we can to remain invested in the broader local and global community. In recent weeks I have seen numerous posters advertising adopt-a-child campaigns, food drives, and other charitable activities on Skidmore’s campus. If your school has similar events during this holiday season, what could it hurt to participate in one or two? College is a balance of living in the moment and looking toward the future. It is easy to become entrenched in this bubble of social and academic life, so try to do one thing in these next few weeks that keeps you in touch with the outside world. It helps to put everything in perspective and will be a welcome break from the stress of final exams.