It’s getting to be that point in the fall semester that I both love and hate at the same time; the winter holidays. While I do welcome the opportunity to take a break from classes and commuting, I often find that it’s quite difficult to resist the urge to let your brain go on a permanent mental vacation. This semester is going to be especially difficult for me, since it will be my last semester at Maryland.
One life skill I think I acquired in college is making sure to set aside part of the day, dedicating it towards a mentally stimulating or challenging activity during vacations. In the past, I’ve invested in math books, logic puzzles, and non-fiction reading materials—all things that are not necessarily related to school, but definitely help to keep you in a school-like mindset so that when you return to campus, you’re not suddenly overwhelmed by the need to readjust.
Vacations are also a great time to get ahead on schoolwork. This may not seem like a very appealing idea, but before you write the idea off completely, consider this: by getting your work done sooner rather than later, you might just set yourself up for a longer vacation than your peers. Over break, your syllabus can become your best friend, since it is generally a “cheat sheet” of what reading and other assignments might be due.
While I do agree it doesn’t seem to pay off in the beginning, I found that the more you get done over vacation, the more free time you seem to have once classes reconvene. While everyone else is grumbling about the papers and assignments coming up in a few days, you can sit back and relax for the next few weeks because you’ve already been there, done that. The feeling of only needing to worry about editing your already written paper based on classroom discussions or just brushing up for a test rather than some late night cramming is, in my opinion, probably one the best feelings in the world.
Winter break is also a great time to prepare for your future in the career world or in academia. One thing I’ve come to make a habit of is to scout out any workshops or classes that are offered over vacation. Again, this may not appear to be an ideal option, but I have attended several seminars in the past that were not too demanding of me and actually provided me with skills that I could apply to a future career.
Regardless of what you decide to do with your vacation, I encourage you to consider at least having one activity each day that you would consider intellectually stimulating; it doesn’t need to be time-consuming, just something that will stretch you just enough so that when the fun is over, you won’t feel like you’re struggling as much to get back into the swing of things.