When exams and the semester come to a close, students can’t wait to travel to their hometowns for a nice, long break.  But with the break also comes the holidays and the unfortunate holiday parties.  After being gone all semester, you are required to make a lengthy appearance at these gatherings to socialize with all your relatives and family friends that are dying to grill you on all the details of college. Most of the questions about your relationship status and grades are awkward and unavoidable, and you will and up answering each question at least 15 times before the night is over.  Here are obscure, yet satisfying answers to the unavoidable questions that you are sure to face at this year’s holiday parties:     

"How's school going?"

This is the easy question that every aunt, uncle, and cousin will start off with.  It can usually be answered with a one-word response like “good” or “fine”, but these people are looking gratifying details to relive their glory days of college.  Bite your tongue and give them what they want.  Talk about the organizations you are involved in and the classes you took.   

“What’s your major?” 

Any person who went through recruitment knows that this question is coming.  For those people who have declared their major; this one is easy, but for the people who have no clue what they want to do with their lives; it’s a nightmare.  Instead of replying with “undecided”, try answering “exploratory”.  This is heard much less and most of the time your relatives will be impressed.  Exploratory sounds like you are interested in lots of topics, but are trying to narrow your options before picking.   

“How are your grades?” 

This question is most likely going to be asked by your parents the second you get home.  If they are paying for your school, they want to know how their investment is going.  We all know college is no walk in the park, so some of us might be sweating a little bit when asked this question.  Try telling your parents, “I had a few hard classes, but I worked really hard with them, and I think I did pretty well.”  With this answer, you accepted the fact that your classes were hard, but you relieve them by saying how hard you worked and you think you did well.  On a plus, it usually takes a few weeks to get final grades back, so by the time they do come in pray that they forgot all about it.   

“Are you dating anyone?” 

This is it. The most dreaded of all questions you could be asked about.  No one wants to tell their grandma that they are single for yet another holiday season or be asked if you are in love with your newest boyfriend.  No matter what your status is, this question is the worse.  If you are single the best way to get around this question is by answering with something along the lines of, “No, I’m not dating anyone. I’m trying to focus on my school work right now.” Your grandma will be so impressed and proud of you.  If you are dating someone, try to keep it casual and explain you are nowhere close to walking down the isle.  And if you have a FWB or unsure of what you are, run in the opposite direction because no one wants to explain that to their grandma.