The Story
Winter Break Allows for Stress Relief
Imagine this scenario: engines roar in the background, a distraught child screams in the seat in front of you, and your brother drools on your left shoulder. This lovely scenario describes none other than a 5 hour airplane ride to California with my family. However, once this plane ride ends, the fun begins in sunny California.
Going on trips is a fine way for college students to relax and enjoy themselves during winter break. That is, if they can endure the traveling necessary to arrive at said enjoyable destinations.
Although many students would do anything to get a break from their stressful schoolwork, most will admit that boredom will commence soon after the first week of bumming around the house, waking up at two in the afternoon and watching the Real World for six hours straight.
Thus, students get creative over winter break and explore the endless possibilities to enjoy guilt-less leisure. From skiing to visiting family to road trips, winter break is a great time to take advantage of being free of responsibilities (well, besides taking out the trash).
Nevertheless, broke students always wants to earn some extra money over the holiday season so that they can afford the nightly runs to Wawa or their caffeine fix at the Daily Grind. Sacrificing their winter break to serve some unruly customers might just be worth it upon their return to school.
Brittany Garcia experienced the “joys” of working during the holiday, “Unfortunately, I worked over 60 hours a week. So I guess if you consider working holiday retail entertaining... then I was highly entertained.”
She can trust to see some envious looks back at school when she is not scrounging for pennies in order to buy a basket of chicken fingers at Lodge 1. After all, college is all about the late night binges, right?
On the other hand, those who are not buried in the wonderful world of retail enjoy everything and anything that reminds them of home.
“My entertainment over the winter break is everything you can’t find in a colonial town…movies, big malls, clubbing and hanging out with old high school friends,” says sophomore Rohani Mahyera.
Similarly, Christina Bolton keeps herself busy while home to fight boredom, but she makes sure she enjoys the special features of being at home.
“For ‘entertainment’ over my winter break, I enjoy getting decent amounts of sleep each night. When I'm not sleeping, though, I'm spending time with friends and family, working for money as opposed to grades, and catching up on movie watching and pleasure reading I missed out on all semester,” she says.
Let’s face it, students at the College must often decide whether they want to complete their hefty pile of assignments or succumb to the temptation of television. Many students will admit that such neglect of work does happen frequently, though the relaxation is not without some guilt.
Winter break is a time when students can enjoy spending time with family and friends, reading books for pleasure, and sleeping. Even though you might have to endure through an entirely-too-lengthy airplane ride, where you go and what you do should be completely guilt-free. Tomorrow when you wake up at 2 p.m. just remember, take advantage of winter break because our days are numbered.