Dear Winter Break,

Goodbye. Farewell. You will be missed. Let’s face it -- most of us only have a few winter breaks left before we are forced into the real world. The adult world. The world where we have a job and more responsibility than any college student would have. This is my last winter break before I graduate next winter. I will be heading off to law school where yes, I will indeed have more winter breaks, but each year they bring much change.

Winter break is a time of laughter. Stupid mistakes. Shopping sprees to the mall where there are great after the holiday sales. Winter break is for reflecting on the first semester and moving on to bigger and better things.

It’s about spending time with family, friends and co-workers. It’s about enjoying hot cocoa and snuggling up on the couch with a book or a movie. It’s about the laughter, the tears, and the fun or boredom (waiting for school to start and see friends again). It’s about learning more about yourself when you’re home and pondering life. It’s about realizing who is a true friend and will stick by your side through the good and the bad. It’s about figuring out what makes you happy and what makes you sad. What you will accept from others and what you will reject. What you want to do with the last few semesters you have before you get a career.

It’s about the late night chats. The bar hopping with high school friends from your hometown. It’s for a New Year’s Eve party and ringing in the new year of health, wealth, and blessings among everyone you love. It’s for those blessings you know you truly have and to reflect on knowing that you are given this one precious life and that you will make the utmost best of it. It’s for the time in your life where you take chances, have regrets, and do stupid things so when you’re old and gray you can tell your grandkids the wild times you had when you were younger. It’s about valuing relationships or getting rid of toxic people.

It’s about taking an LSAT course to prep you for law school (if you’re me). It’s about cherishing the good times to remember when there are bad times. It’s about cooking, baking, and having wine nights with friends. It’s all about those things. It’s not about the grades you got during the fall semester. It’s not about that you and your significant other just broke up. It’s not about petty fights with siblings. It’s not about any of those things.

It’s about YOU. Yes, you. Winter break is a time for relaxation, reflection, and fun. So make the best of it before it’s all gone. Goodbye, winter break, and thank you for being you.

XOXO,

Me