On Monday, October 10, 2016, the university did not celebrate Columbus Day with a day off. Instead, classes were held as normal. The reason for this could be contributed to the fact that Columbus Day is a controversial holiday since it celebrates a man who did a lot more than take advantage of the Native Americans. However, it may also be due to the fact that we already had a Monday off for Labor Day earlier this semester. On top of that, the university has gifted us with Friday, October 14th as a day off and titled it "Fall Break." If you ask most students, I think they would tell you that a three-day weekend cannot be called a "break." The fact is that most students do not go home for break and for those that do, it does not provide much.
I was one of those students who went home for "Fall Break." I went home to surprise my family. I took a bus from Union Station to NYC and then took the Metro North train to New Haven where a friend of mine picked me up and brought me home. Due to all the complications, I did not get home at 1 a.m., but instead at 2:30 a.m. Besides actually surprising everyone at home, I was surprised with how little joy I got from being home. I will admit that it was nice to be away from school for the long weekend and to see my friends from high school, but it was also just weird. Most of my friends were still away at college because they did not want to come home for the long weekend or they did not have one at all.
In the end, my point is that "Fall Break" is really just this weird halfway point through the fall semester where they try to give us a "break" by offering us a long weekend. Unlike in the spring semester, the university cannot give us a week off because we already have time off due to Thanksgiving Break. I, personally, would be all for not taking long weekends, and instead using them towards getting a longer Thanksgiving Break because the price for airplane tickets is so high so close to turkey day. However, Thanksgiving Break leads straight into the last two weeks of the semester and is too late to be a break mid-way through the semester. With that said, I guess we're stuck with "Fall Break."
