How the reason for the season changes as you do.
I wonder if Cindy Lou Who would lend me some clothes and offer me some hair styling tips, if I would feel more in the holiday spirit. Or perhaps I need to plant myself in front of the Hallmark channel's Christmas series followed by 25 days of Christmas on ABC Family to get the juices flowing. Maybe I haven't eaten enough Christmas cookies to be infused with the sugar of the holiday gods yet.
What ever it may be, I've noticed it to be harder and harder for college-aged kids to hear those sleigh bells jinglin'.
It could be the post-exam-stress-disorder combined with the already encroaching stress of the spring semester, but I find it hard to believe we have completely lost the transcription of holiday cheer in our DNA process. What we have lost, however (even though we're desperately clinging onto it), is the childish innocence and enthusiasm that the season brings. When you're a young one, all you can think about from the moment the month changes to December is how in 24 short days a jolly man is going to be sliding down your chimney. Once the exhilaration of St. Nick surpasses, it's the intense rush of the amount of items that will be checked off of your Christmas list. Although we know family is 100 times better than any gift, we still can't wait to rip them open and feast our hungry eyes over our new brag-worthy presents. After this phase in holiday growth dies down, you're now at the in between of wanting to be like the other rascals, bragging about gifts, sipping champagne with the adults and hoping to see Santa when you get up to have some cereal in the middle of the night.
This is why it's so difficult to be a college-aged kid during the holidays. We already have so many in-between moments and uncertainties, the last thing we need is this season that's supposed to be filled with joy to bring them too. Not to mention the endless number of family members and friends who will ask you, as if on repeat, how your (nonexistent) love life is, how you performed this semester, and what your plans for after college are. Their poor souls don't realize you've spent the last two weeks living off of four hours of sleep just to three-point a class, so the last thing you want to talk about is school or the future, which you've actually been running away from with your tail between your legs.
As much as we don't want the stresses of being a college kid (which is actually amazing when we're not freaking out) to get in the way, it's become so easy for them to seep through our cracked facade. This is why it's called holiday break: to take a break from the reality that stresses us out and to spend time with the people who have known us since we were that little kid who got butterflies in their stomach the night of Christmas Eve.
Even though the season is no longer about making cookies for Santa or competing for who got the better gifts, it's still about being with those who know you, those who love you and those who want to see you happy. The beauty of experiencing the holidays as you're older is wonderful and something you can finally appreciate. Appreciate how slow your Grandma walks around the kitchen while she makes peanut butter balls. Appreciate your dad's obnoxious amount of Santa Clause figurines. Appreciate your mom's hyena laugh (knowing she gave it to you). Appreciate the fights you and your sister will have over clothes. Appreciate all of the little things that you couldn't buy in a store.
And remember, just because your world is changing and you're rearranging, doesn't mean Christmas has to change too.
