Thanksgiving break is a time when students receive the opportunity to go home and spend time with family and friends and have homemade food, which can be rare in college. Sadly, only some students get to go home, while others must wait until Christmas break to return for a four-week span.
The awkward two weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks make it hard for out-of-state students to share both holidays with family. Often, as students progress in college, time with family is also cut short because of work or other commitments. Following Thanksgiving is long-awaited Black Friday, when sales run wild as early as Thursday evening, but if you are a student working retail or in a department store, then coming home can be difficult.
“I am able to go home because I only live an hour from campus,” said Erica Grassl, a junior Christian ministries major. “These two weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break will be horrible. I have so much due in these weeks that I was not able to enjoy time with family.”
The two weeks between these two breaks can be a strain because as soon as students come back to school, assignments of greater value are due and they enter the infamous “dead week.”
That’s when almost all major assignments are due, including papers, articles, theses, presentations and so on. Imagine coming back from a food coma to a 15-page paper being due. Yes, it is the responsibility of the student to get assignments done on time or even early in order to enjoy the break, but sometimes the material that is needed cannot be retrieved until the week of the break or a tad bit sooner. As a result, for some, the idea of a break is quickly taken away and replaced with the stress of ending the semester on a good note.
“I think it’s nice to give the students a rest before taking their finals,” said Kiki Roman, a junior English major. “But at the same time I feel like over the break we get comfortable with not doing anything and just relaxing with our family.”
This break is not all bad. It gives students something to which they look forward. Instead of constant class, assignments and chapel, students have family, friends and activities to relax their minds before the final push of the semester and the beginning of finals.
The idea of the break can be seen as a good and bad thing. Some schools experience a weeklong one, while others have only a few days, not including the weekend. This year Azusa Pacific decided to move the study day from October to November to accommodate an extra day for students to travel home on the front end of Thanksgiving break. Some students left earlier than the study day to allow airplane travel or driving distance, while others left on the study day. Some even stayed through the week and had a “friendsgiving,” where friends gather together for a meal of thanks.
This year feels as though two study days were needed in order to survive, but the end is near. Thanksgiving break gave a nice time of relaxation for some, a good chunk of time to catch up on school work for others. Some students even had extra time with friends and family or the option to go on a missions trip. The two weeks in between the breaks are not ideal, but there is always something positive to pull out of it. Now let’s get through the next two weeks and look forward to Christmas!