Tomorrow, almost all of us will leave C’ville and head somewhere to celebrate my all-time favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. I don’t know if it’s the turkey, the football or the family; but there’s no day quite as idyllic as Thanksgiving.
The best is not only the wonderful day of Thanksgiving, but also the fact that it’s packaged into a week of joy. First, you arrive home and start lounging while planning out your delicious meal on Thursday. Then comes Black Friday, when hordes of people will pack the stores in search of killer sales. Whether you choose to join the madness or enjoy the news stories that are sure to come out, fun times await all. Finally, the weekend is spent kicking off the holiday season by buying a tree and putting up the lights.
Without a doubt, this Wednesday through Sunday you will be eating, shopping, lounging, watching football and getting excited for the holidays. What won’t you be doing? Studying.
I know you’re thinking, “Well, not studying is sort of the point of break.” I would agree with you 100 percent in the cases of Christmas and Spring Break. But Thanksgiving can be tricky.
Before we all leave on break, the amount of work we have coming looms over our heads. Somehow, though, the second we get home the smell of sweet potatoes and turkey sinks in and all that work floats away. But take this fourth year’s advice and don’t let that happen. Scary news flash: You only have two weeks of school left when you get back to school on Monday.
That’s a lot of papers to write in two weeks. That’s a lot of exams to study for in two weeks. It can be done; but, you won’t enjoy those two weeks at all. After the great week that is to come, the misery will just be that much more shocking.
Good news! There is something you can do to avoid this conundrum. Just do a minimum amount of work over break. I’m not saying write up entire study guides for each exam. Just make sure you’re caught up in your reading and other work. If you feel like going wild, maybe write up an outline for a paper.
Doing this will not ruin your break. Rather, it will enhance your last two weeks of the semester. You want to be able to go out and enjoy tacky sweater parties. You want to go to all the Christmas-themed parties. If you never open your school bag all of break, then it might be a rocky road ahead.
The real question will be if I follow my own advice. After three solid years of spending my Thanksgiving break book-less, maybe this is the year that I finally mature and start planning ahead. I am turning 22 after all.
So if you want to take a crusty old fourth year’s advice, here it is: The best holiday of the year is coming. Enjoy every moment of it. But after your turkey-coma recedes, crack open those books for an hour. That will mean an hour of relaxation or partying when you really need it at some point in those last two weeks. Happy Thanksgiving and have a great break!
Stephanie Dodge is a fourth-year trustee.
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