Fall is arguably one of the best times of the year thanks to sweater weather and seeing stores incorporate pumpkin into every item they sell seemingly overnight. The downside is that this is also generally midterm time. Yes, we will gain an hour of sleep with daylight savings time, but that is nowhere near enough time to catch up on all that we have missed over the last couple of weeks. There is a lot of school to fit in from Labor Day, during the second week of school, and Thanksgiving, with no break in between. This is why UMD should definitely have a fall break.
One obvious reason is the time it would allow students to go home to see family and friends. This would be a great option for students that live out of state that aren’t given a whole lot of time at home for Thanksgiving, which is really just a long weekend.
“It’s especially hard being an out of state student at a public university because so many people are able to go home and get off campus, while I have to wait for Thanksgiving break to fly home and the airlines jack up prices to almost $500 for a three-day break,” said Marianna Paradise, a UMD junior from Massachusetts. “If we had a fall break it would give people mental breaks and the opportunity to go home on an off-weekend with cheaper fares.”
This time at home is not only great because you can see family, but for the break from classes. Leading up to Halloween, there is nothing scarier than the assignments and papers that have piled up since the leaves began to change. Students can use this time to recuperate and relax. Relax might not be the right word considering we know we would still have plenty of work to do, but it would still be nice to do work from the comfort of our own homes, sitting by the fire while sipping a pumpkin latte because we are as fall as it gets.
With fall break we would also be able to catch up on all of our shows that we’ve missed because of so much work and other commitments. Rather, we can continue to watch endless Netflix and Halloween movies without having to call it procrastinating. The number of “Netflix & chill” costumes this year was very inspiring on this front.
Don’t forget that you can also use this new found free time to update your Instagram with all things fall activities. With fall break, students would have time for road trips, trips to the pumpkin patch for cider, and hayrides, all while wearing their favorite over-sized sweater.
All stereotypical fall essentials aside, a break at this time of year would be a nice pause from the stresses of school and much needed family time before the next round of midterms.
