Going into a longer than normal winter break had me excited. I was ready to decompress from my first semester at USC and my first semester using Zoom since my previous college only used asynchronous learning. This break was the first time in years where I was fortunate enough not to work retail. I did not realize that a quarantined winter break would present itself with unique challenges that I had not previously experienced to the same degree in my quarantined fall semester.
I don’t believe the longer break means more time to rest but rather means a time to stop doing school momentarily and rest as a period to recover from the occurrences of the semester. For each of us, a standard winter break looks different.
Normally someone could find themselves taking time to travel, visit family and see friends who have come home from college, or do something else entirely with people you don’t normally have the opportunity to see. These normal activities were no longer safe options. Although this part of the pandemic is not new, when accompanied with what holiday break means to people, it felt more difficult to handle.
It’s extremely difficult to feel a genuine sense of rest and recovery when considering the pandemic’s impact. The incessant, yet necessary, sense of worry about keeping oneself safe and others safe is a weight each individual has handled for about a year now. Political tension continued to build up until a crescendo over the break. Injustices unearthed themselves countless times.
Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, the things that happen around us will impact us. The impact manifests itself differently for each person, whether emotionally, physically, or otherwise, but I think most can agree that the combination of events makes it feel difficult to feel like you’re on vacation from school. Academics were taken out of the equation, but the circumstances around each of us took a larger seat in our lives.
Zoom fatigue followed us into break as other video call platforms were how family holiday gatherings, catch-ups with friends, and most group activities took place. It became harder to find the escape break provided as a sense of sameness followed us each day. There was no way to break up the monotony with an outing, whether it be a simple meal out or an elaborate excursion.
I’ve made an effort to enumerate all of the problems with a longer break due to the pandemic, but I think that if anything stays in a post-pandemic USC world, it should be the longer break. Having the entire month of December off allowed students who celebrate Hanukkah to actually enjoy the holiday. Those with children or younger siblings in the same household got to spend more time with them and make sure they had a holiday filled with love and closeness.
Although the longer break was created to stop students from infecting one another after Thanksgiving, I think it is essential to consider the benefits of having more time off in a non-pandemic break period, even if it means an earlier start. Students celebrating Thanksgiving would be able to spend it with their family and/or not pay for more flights than necessary.
Having a break was important, even though it didn’t leave me with the degree of rest I thought it should. Going into the spring semester knowing the only breaks outside of weekends are scattered wellness days, a new sense of stress has arisen. I am hopeful professors and students alike make a point to detach from school work completely during wellness days and not be forced to use it as a day to cram and catch up.