The holidays are the most exciting part of the fall semester. You spend your time counting down until Christmas and Thanksgiving break. However, holidays can be stressful too. Here is a list of four things that occur during this season that we think we hate, but actually love.
1. Family Time
Photo from Pinterest.
Seeing your family is always great. It’s nice to catch up and reflect on good times, but not when you are scarfing down your mom’s amazing macaroni and cheese. They ask “how’s school going” and you reply with a simple “good” as you finish off the warm croissants. That’s when they tell you how quiet you are, but actually you’re dying on the inside. You want to talk to them and tell them about the time you aced your presentation or about the time you faceplanted on King Street, but you also just really want to see if your grades have been posted, eat and sleep. And avoid the question of if you’re seeing anyone.
2. Outfit Planning
Photo from Pinterest.
We love to look cute on Thanksgiving, but why? We walk around the house all day waiting for lunch or dinner to be ready and after we eat we literally need to change into sweat pants before we rip our dresses. Granted, it is fun to dress up and maybe take a picture or two with your sibling, but after that, what’s the point? Not to mention how much unneeded stress it takes to plan a cute fall outfit. The same goes for Christmas. We spend so much time looking for the perfect “ugly” sweater and end up with the one that says “Merry Christmas ya’ filthy animal.” When in reality, all we plan on doing is laying around in our new, comfortable pajamas as we watch Christmas Vacation for the 800th time.
3. Shopping for Presents
Photo from Pinterest.
If you are anything like me, shopping for other people might be one of your favorite things to do. What’s more exciting than picking out something specifically for someone and seeing the reaction on their face? The only downside are the battles you have to fight in the stores to get what you want. For example, Black Friday is fun in spirit and you can get some great deals on expensive things, but is it truly worth going to Walmart to get the new FIFA for your boyfriend if it means you get your shopping cart stolen several times and possibly trampled by the crowd? While all of this going on, you’re trying to resist the temptation to buy yourself something nice as well. The answer is yes, yes it’s worth it. That’s what makes you enjoy it.
4. Traveling
Photo from Pinterest.
Traveling takes a long time whether it’s two hours away or sixteen hours away. Sitting in car with your knees cramped up against you is not exactly how we plan to spend our first day of break. It makes it worse when your sibling is being obnoxious and is kicking your seat or keeps messing with you while you’re just trying to read your book. At the same time of all this frustration, you’re still excited to get where you are going, whether you are genuinely excited about it or just excited to get out of the car.
We spend so much time complaining about these factors of the holidays and go right back to school just to say “where did my break go?” But honestly, these stressful moments and happy moments are what makes the break good. Thanksgiving and Christmas would not be the same without playing 20 questions with your family, finding that perfect outfit, fighting off that evil soccer mom at Walmart for the last videogame or putting up with your sibling’s “jokes.” Let’s face it, we actually love everything about the season.
Happy holidays, collegiettes!