Week 1: Coming home
Arriving home after the long fall semester is a magical feeling. Suddenly you are no longer confined to a tiny dorm room that smells like a variety of unknown substances. You're home! There is actually food in the refrigerator that is not two-day-old pizza or what used to be Chinese food. You have these magical creatures called parents doing your laundry and making you dinner. It does not get much better than that!
Week 2: Christmas, Hannukkah, Festivus and whatever else people celebrate
Week two of winter break brings in the holidays. Christmas, Hannukkah and New Years all slapped together in one giant week of celebration, free shit, and alcohol. There is nothing better than Christmas week and all the free food it brings. Sure, you may have to sit through some awkward family dinners where mom overcooks the chicken, Aunt Karen has one too many glasses of wine and dirty Uncle Sal says something completely inappropriate about cousin Tina's chest but that's what family is for.
Week 3: Where have my friends gone?
Week three of winter break starts out pretty great. Your friends are still around to hang out with and listen to all your rants about how annoying your sister is and how your middle school aged brother keeps saying things like "that's moist" after every sentence you say. There is still plenty of Christmas cheer left over and your parents are not excessively annoying yet. Then the mass migration of friends begins. At the start of the week all your friends are still home but by the end of the week, the numbers dwindle down to a few friends. Suddenly you find yourself texting random "friends" from high school hoping they too are as desperate as you are.
Week 4: The struggle is real
Week four is when the struggle gets real. Your friends are gone and for the first time since you were 10, you honestly can't wait till your parents get home from work so you have someone to talk to. During this time you're most likely to binge watch all 12 seasons of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix for the third time. You begin to talk to your pets as if they were people and find yourself eating your weight in Cheetos. And you notice these strange orange stains on your dog and you realized you unintentionally used your dog as a Cheeto napkin. Sorry Pup!
Week 5: I will Survive
By this time, your parents start to worry and your sister starts to comment on how many days you have worn the same sweatpants in a row. You decide to go to the gym for the first time in six months and you are not entirely sure how to turn on the treadmill or run. The whole exercise thing is kinda a mystery to you. Somewhere deep down inside you begin to think about using your brain again for something other than Candy Crush and Netflix binging.
Week 6: The scramble
The scramble stage begins in week six when you realize you will be heading back to UD soon. Your room starts out as moderately messy but by the end of the week, it appears as though a tornado went through your room during war time. You dig through your sisters closet and steal some of her things. You treat yourself to an elaborate shopping spree because new jeans mean a new you. Then it hits you that you're once again going to spend another semester broke. But hey at least those jeans make your butt look good.
Week 7: Finally
Week seven is triumphant. At the end of this week you know you will be back at UD, where you belong. You have your bags packed by Monday even though you're not leaving till Saturday. You make some last stitch efforts to see some relatives to say goodbye, while secretly hoping they will slip you some cash for the new semester. You can hear the sound of the parties calling the whole drive back to UD. Then you arrive back to your building and remember how crappy your apartment is. It's okay though, you're finally at your home away from home!
