The last two weeks of the semester for me were spent writing over thirty pages worth of essays, and I’m sure many of you experienced something pretty similar for finals week. Congrats to all of us for making it through to this point without dropping out. Now, though, I’m on my third winter break of my college career and I can pretty much tell you exactly how it will go, despite how I imagined it during those two weeks of hell that closed my fifth semester at college:
Daily Expectations:
After taking a couple days to rest after a grueling semester, you’ll start your productive winter break. This means getting up at a reasonable hour and doing some kind of exercise to start the day. Then maybe we can move to a healthy breakfast before heading out to a shift at the job you’ll come back to for a couple months. After work, you’ll eat a nice meal with your family, watch some enriching television, and head to bed to make sure you’re well rested to repeat the next day.
Daily Realities:
Today I woke up at 12:30pm and went on a YouTube loop of confrontational talk show interviews until I decided I should probably write a blog so that I can afford to pay for alcohol next semester. After I’m done with this, I’ll start my binging of Succession, which I’m sure will halt any and all productivity for the rest of my break, and after that I’ll hang out with my friends for five hours in which we will argue intensely about who will end up losing our fantasy football league.
Christmas Expectations:
Christmas will be a beautiful experience in which you and your entire family realize just how much you love one another. The gifts given will be meaningful, and you’ll wish that the holiday season would last forever – because who wouldn’t want to spend even more time with people that you only get to see three times a year?
Christmas Realities:
You spend most of the holiday hiding how many beers you’re drinking from the rest of your family because the whole thing becomes a lot more bearable if you don’t have to remember it. After receiving a box set of Ken Burns’ The Civil War from your aunt because you mentioned over the summer that you enjoyed your American History gen-ed, you migrate over to the other side of the room where your uncle starts making borderline racist remarks after his fifth rum and coke of the night.
New Year’s Expectation:
Project X (2012) dir. Nima Nourizadeh
New Year’s Reality:
You black out with some of your close friends in a night that isn’t all that wild. It’s a fun time, but not the blow-out bash you’d anticipated.
The End Expectation:
You’ll be excited to go back and get back into the college experience, see all of your friends, and start a new semester that will hopefully be even better than the last.
The End Reality:
You’re excited for the first couple weeks where classes are light and drinking is high, but you start to really wonder if this whole “college” thing is totally worth it, feeling like you’re a lot closer to dropping out than you thought you’d be.
