It can be difficult to adjust back into campus life after more or less of a month at home. Going from the countless hours of being immobile on the couch watching Netflix to rushing across campus to your 9 am because you forgot you can’t sleep until noon anymore is a hard adjustment. It was nice to have no responsibilities and it was also fun to hear stories from friends who go to colleges with Greek life. Most of all, it was great to eat food prepared for less than the entire student population. But now we’re back, and “Syllabus Week” is nothing more than a 5 minute nap at the beginning of class. So here are some ways to readjust to the rigors of academic life:
1. Give yourself time to relax
It can be daunting to look at the syllabus and see all the work you’re going to have to do for that class. Multiply that by 5 and it can be overwhelming; especially coming back from winter break where there was nothing to worry about. So, when readjusting to school, take some time to chill every so often. Watch an episode of your favorite show on Netflix, read a chapter of a good book, or order in a good meal.
2. Catch up with friends
After a month away, it’ll be great to catch up with everyone you’ve missed from school, and they’ll likely have so many stories to share. While you probably all kept in touch over break through texting or Snapchat, or Facetime, there’s nothing like giving your best friends a great big hug after time apart. A great way to catch up is going out to dinner or playing a game of soccer on one of these unseasonably warm January days. Maybe talking to other people who are stressed about the new semester can maybe take some of your own stress away.
3. Get into a routine
After the freedom of winter break, you may be used to just roaming around and doing whatever you think of in the moment. When readjusting to class schedules and extracurriculars, it can be helpful to get back into a routine. This will make all the things you have to do just a bit less overwhelming. Plus, scheduling your day or week is just another way to ensure that you don’t miss a class or forget to complete an assignment.
4. Text or call your friends from home
After spending all break with your friends from home, it can be hard to leave them. And even though your back with all the great people from college, that doesn’t mean you don’t miss your home friends. So, take some time to talk to them. It could be for five minutes just to say “hi,”or it could be hours so that you can update them on every little detail. Whatever the case may be, communicating with friends from home can make it seem like you’re still partly on break.
5. Meet new people (hands shaking)
A new semester means new classes, and new classes mean new people in those classes. Try and reach out to some of these new people and make a new friend or at least find someone to text when you need help with the readings. Meeting new people is a great way to reintroduce yourself to school life after break by bridging the gap between academics and social life. Take that first step by turning to the person next to you and introduce yourself. The worst thing that’ll happen is they’ll ignore you, and if that happens just switch seats next class and pretend it never happened.
If you’re still having trouble adjusting back into academic life, crawl under the covers and take a nice long nap and dream of the time not too long ago when you had an entire month of no responsibilities.
Sources:
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