Winter break is the biggest scam in the history of the entire world.
Bigger than online shopping. Bigger than weight loss pills. Bigger than any pyramid scheme.
Yes, college is an extremely stressful time for students. The most stressful time of the semester is when exams begin to creep up on you. I'm not talking regular exams, I'm talking midterms and finals.
Midterms sneak up on you before fall break. Midterms differ for everyone. They can stress you out, but they're really a taste of where you currently are in the course. It can be a wake up call to study harder. It can be comforting to know that you are on track. Then, once you're done, you hit break. A small one, but enough time to catch up with friends and family over Thanksgiving.
But then you go back, and crunch time for finals begin. You have a short amount to time to study and remember the course material that will be tested in a paper, practical or multiple hour exam. The stress students have during this amount of time is immense.Meals are missed studying. Sleep is lost to all nighters. Once finals are over and break begins, immense amounts of stress are lifted off of the shoulders of students. Break has begun.
Break is imagined to be magical. All of your time spent with people you haven't seen in ages. Doing whatever you want, whenever you want. Earning money at a job back home to have some spending money for the next semester. All of it, stress free and fun with the added excitement of the holiday season.
But after the holidays, break becomes a bore. You make plans to see everyone from home that you haven't seen in months, but do you actually spend time with them? Days are spent lounging around, missing campus and the friends you had made at school that live too far away to visit. Everything is a bore, and students yearn to go back to school, even if that means starting the cycle of classwork and exams again.
All in all, winter break is magical at first, and then becomes a bore. When it's too long, it becomes the same, sleep in-binge Netflix-go back to bed schedule. It's not as magical as it can seem.