There are sixteen weeks in a semester. The first few weeks of the fall semester are spent making friends, adjusting to classes, and finding some sort of routine. The next couple may be dedicated to intensely studying for exams, getting involved in clubs, and spending more time with those new friends. Then, it’s midterms, and you’re spending all of your times either studying or distracting your friends from studying. Then it’s finals. The week that turns everyone into stressed out zombies, math machines, paper writers, and project makers. When finals are finally over, it’s time to go home.

Reflecting upon those sixteen weeks, maybe studying wasn’t the most noteworthy thing to mention at Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas morning brunch. Maybe, it was the sixteen weekends spent with the new friends you’ve made. From inside jokes, midnight adventures, and hallway shenanigans, to heart-to heart conversations, baking cookies, and drawing on people in their sleep, the weekends are the highlights of the semester.

So when finals are finally over, and it’s time to go home to your cats, dogs, and birth givers, it may be a tad bittersweet. The holidays are a nice time for family and a nice three week gap before the spring semester. However, it’s hard to be away from the friend family you’ve created at school who make you laugh until 3 a.m. watching Vine compilations on YouTube. All that you can do is make a joke about not seeing anyone until next year and wait for another sixteen weekends to do it all again.