The mass exodus of college students heading home for the long-awaited winter break is nearly here (unless of course you live in your college town, and in that case, you should stop reading this article). Although we have prayed for this day all of finals week, we now realize that going home means parents enforcing rules, not living right next to our best friends and not having the elaborate social life we have grown so accustomed to at our fingertips. So on this three-week break with freedom from assignment due dates and classes to study for, how do we reap the most out of this period of relaxation at home? Even more importantly, how do we keep our sanity while far away from the beloved land full of cheap bars, cheap food and priceless fun?
Respect your parents
Yeah, you are no longer used to living under their rules and you no longer have a curfew to abide by or a rule about not bringing your special someone over. But keep this in mind: Your parents have worked their butts off to make sure you grew up to be able to have the opportunity to attend the university you do right now. All of those nights they yelled at you for coming home too late, for not getting a good grade on your test, for not being nice enough to your little sister — all of those things allowed you to become the amazing college student you are today. So don’t be so PO’ed when they remind you to be quiet past 10 p.m. They are living, working adults too, and you wouldn’t be able to have a college to miss if it weren’t for them.
Enjoy doing nothing
It is not very often in college life, or any future part of adult life for that matter, that you will get a chunk of time when you have very little responsibility and obligations. Enjoy this winter break, sleep in as late as you need to and revel in your utter boredom because you will miss it very soon when classes come creeping around the corner again. Every time you catch yourself thinking how bored you are, go do something you’ve been meaning to do but have been putting off until tomorrow since you’re “so busy” during the year. Read that guilty pleasure book, pursue your hobby as a mediocre painter or learn how to make a soufflé. Just remember to enjoy every minute of it.
Understand that this is all temporary
You no longer live as a permanent resident at home, so these few weeks are fleeting and just a smudge of time in the mirror of what is now your present life. Soon you will graduate, (hopefully) move off into a new city to pursue bigger and better things, and if you’re lucky, you will be able to visit family when the holidays swing around. You will probably not spend a lot of future time sleeping in your childhood bed or lounging around your house with your parents on Sundays, so learn to appreciate this nice gap of life between childhood and full-blown adulthood. One day it will be all too real that this home is a far away, blurry concept, and your new life with your possibly new family may consume most of your time.
College is fun, exciting and full of surprises around every corner. But home is generally a place that can be described by more laid-back adjectives, such as quiet, boring and monotonous, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We need to realize that this is a good alternative to our usual fast-paced lives full of classes, studying, organization involvement and socializing. Perspective is everything, and your perspective while at home should be one of gratuity and introspection. You are blessed to have a home and family to return to this break, and you are even more blessed to be able to return back to this glorious school for spring semester!
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