Sylly week brings its own rounds of stress and temptation. It provides us with ample free time in between classes and meetings because of our lack of schoolwork. Sylly week allows us to go out every night and catch up with friends and familiar faces after a long three to four weeks apart over Winter Break. Sylly week also provides us with the nights that we can choose to stay in and stay up late with those who are closest to our hearts. Sylly week gives us daydream time to think about what we wish to accomplish this year while also being the “quickest” week of second semester, flying by because of how enjoyable and relaxed it is. Sylly week gives us a taste of the good life, right before we hit the books and become regulars at the Ref Room.
And as welcome back week -- previously referred to as Sylly week -- comes to an end, a new semester truly begins. We continue to familiarize ourselves with our new schedules, our new usual spots in lecture halls, our new class friends, our new workload, and our newfound worries and relationships. Maybe we’ve set personal goals to apply ourselves more adeptly to our classes, branch out socially, or even work on that one special relationship that dwindled at the closing of last semester. Or on the contrary, maybe you haven’t set any goals for yourself, leaving you excited for the New Year and the surprises it has to offer.
But when Sylly week ends, as it just so recently has, the winter semester (often the most challenging of the year) ramps up. It’s possible that you’re a senior or in your final year at college and this semester will be a breeze with a light course load and full of time to have fun almost every night, in which case most of this doesn’t apply to you whatsoever.
But for the rest of us, Sylly week is a marking point. It marks where real life starts and where real school begins. Sylly week is also a precursor to one’s organizational skills. For those who are very OCD and want their lives to be orderly all the time, they carve out time to enter syllabus dates and test exam times in their planners, Google calendars, and set reminders on their phone calendars. They plan ahead, and get ahead in the process with simple organization.
And, for others, they disregard the first one or two lectures of Sylly week, put their syllabus somewhere in their backpack (if they even print them out) and pretend that school isn’t a real thing yet. For those people, they get behind before anything has started.
So to conclude this ramble of Sylly week pros and cons, it’s clear that while Sylly week is a time for fun, relaxation, and acclimation to the sh*tty climate, it’s also a good marker for how one will fare this semester. It can be telling of one’s organization, tolerance, and even one’s new habits. It can be one hell of a week, for better or for worse.
