For college students, winter break is a bittersweet experience. You're excited to come home one minute, then the next you miss your friends, and more than likely, your freedom. What better way to describe the five stages of winter break than the notoriously awkward, relatable, and oh-so-lovable cast from Friends?!
Stage 1: Honey, I'm Home!
You've gone months on end without seeing your friends from home, now you can't seem to get enough. For the first few days, you guys are inseparable- you spend countless hours catching up, and you've probably frequented your favorite restaurant together more times than you'd like to admit.
Stage 2: I Could Stop Eating, But I'm Not a Quitter
If you're like me, then your mom's cooking is what you miss the most about home. After spending several weeks trying to live off of the $5 in your bank account, it's nice coming home to a fully-stocked fridge with all of your favorite foods. However, perhaps your mom is a better chef than the one in your college dining hall. and you begin to notice that your fridge is slowly dwindling day by day. Looks like you've turned your winter break into an all you can eat buffet and there's no stopping you now.
Stage 3: I've Been Recently Diagnosed With Chronic Boredom, Please Send Help
Students constantly complain about how crazy their lives get in college, but we don't know how to pass the time when we finally get a break. Should I read a book? Maybe binge watch my favorite show on Netflix for the fifth time? After the initial excitement passes that you're finally home, we're left wondering what to do. You've now entered Stage 3 where you're constantly praying for someone, or something, to save you from chronic boredom.
Stage 4: Hey, What's Up, Hello?
To cope with Stage 3 you then enter Stage 4: constantly calling, Snapchatting, facetiming, and texting your friends from college. This is partly because you miss them, but also partly because you want to assure yourself that you're not the only one this bored. You reminisce about your times together, plan your next adventure for when you all return, and repeatedly mention just how much you miss college, and each other.
Stage 5: Run, Don't Walk
This is it, the time has come for you to say goodbye to your home once more. Some might sadly leave while others, like myself, would gladly run all the way back to college because you're probably one breakdown away from losing all sanity. You'll miss your hometown, your high school friends, and your mom's cooking, but you miss your college freedom a whole heck of a lot more.
I'll always love winter break because it's a special time with family and friends that I rarely get to have. But I also love the excitement I feel while driving back to college because it solidifies that my school, is indeed, the place for me.
