It's that time of year again, where students pretend they care about their education just long enough to pass their finals and barely scrape by for another semester: finals week. However, after the long, torturous road of repetitive tests, little-to-no sleep, and mild caffeine addiction, there lies the greatest gift of all... winter break.
This is a glorious period of six to eight weeks, depending on your university, in which students practice their greatest skills. These include, but are not limited to: doing nothing, eating, watching Netflix, and dreading the upcoming semester. Sounds amazing, right? Right.
Here are the stages we all experience during the wonderland that is winter break.
1. Coma-like sleep.
Finally, you don't have to set your alarms for some ungodly hour of the morning. You can stay up till the sun rises and sleep in for as long as you please...even if you choose to stay in your peaceful slumber until the sun says its good-nights. This stage of vacation will likely last for about a week and a half, or until your body is sufficiently recovered from the sleep deprivation that plagued you during the semester.
2. Binge-watching all the shows you've missed.
Now that you've caught up on your well-deserved rest, it's time to put that newfound energy to good use! And by good use, I mean watching Netflix. School likely caused you to miss a majority of the shows you love, but the good news is that streaming services such as Hulu and the aforementioned Netflix are here for you. With open arms, they will accept you as their own whilst you eye-guzzle "Jessica Jones" for 48 hours and instead of showering afterward, decide to catch up on season two of "The Flash." Eventually, your body will become tired of being nothing more than a sack of potatoes which will lead you to stage three...
3. Attempting to "do something with your life."
This is the stage where, after ruining your newly found energy by watching TV for a week straight, you decide that you aren't going to waste away on the couch for the entirety of break. You start a new Pinterest board with fitness motivation and crafting ideas, all with the intent to be "active" and "useful" during your time off. This period of activity makes you feel energetic and ready to seize the day and all that jazz. This steadily rushes you to stage four of winter break.
4. Artificial confidence in your long-term motivation.
Pinterest has now given you a false sense of confidence in your ability to stay motivated for long periods of time. You assume that because you have now successfully crafted three glasses out of beer bottles and knitted your granny some socks, that you can "do better" this upcoming semester. You start by buying school supplies a few weeks early and organizing everything by subject, then color. You claim to be "so ready" for the new semester and tell your friends that you're totally going to "ace" your classes. This motivational high carries you until the last week of your vacation and then it all comes crashing down.
5. Realization and dread.
In your flurry of crafts and motivational quotes to pin on your school binders, your eye catches sight of the calendar: you only have a week left of vacation until the new semester begins. You realize that you've wasted all of your precious free time being productive and doing things that could have, and should have waited for the new term to begin. You immediately drop what you're doing and go crawling back to the couch you mistakenly left behind. However, it holds no grudges against you and instead offers you comfort as you slither into the cocoon of warmth it holds. You flip on the TV and vow to never leave its side until ten minutes before your first class when you will begrudgingly leave the comfort of the sofa and promise to never take such a wonderful amount of free time for granted ever again.
