TU students could benefit from the implementation of a short fall break to catch their breath during the thick of the semester.
Last week as I trudged around the cold campus, burdened with heavy loads of homework, tests and papers, I thought enviously of students at other schools who are on fall break. Not having had a break from school since Labor Day and the pressure of three weeks of midterms was starting to get to me. To make matters worse, pictures of my friends vacationing or sleeping were all over my Instagram feed.
I can’t be the only one feeling this way, because all week, I have seen students walking with their heads down across campus and large portions of classes absent. Everyone else expects us to get a fall break too. A great many people off campus have asked me what am I doing during my time off, which only makes me feel more annoyed when I tell them I don’t have any. All I want is a break.
It’s not just a want, it’s a need. At this point in the semester, I am extremely sleep-deprived and basically running on loads of coffee and the pressure of getting good grades. I have to ask myself, why don’t we get a fall break like other schools?
It’s nice we get a full week for Thanksgiving so that students can go home and be with their family for the holiday. While that is nice, how is it fair that our mid-semester break is nonexistent, while other universities get two breaks during the fall semester?
I personally would rather have a fall break and not have the full week for Thanksgiving. I must admit that I am from Tulsa, so I do not have to travel to be with my family. For people from other places, I am sure it would be very lonely to be stuck in Tulsa and not be able to go home to family if we had a shorter Thanksgiving break. I just know that by Thanksgiving, I will be exhausted and need the whole week to recover from the busyness of the semester.
It comes down to self-care. There is a lot of pressure on students to succeed. We are supposed to perform at a high level in our classes, be involved in lots of extracurricular activities and have a fulfilling social life. All those things take up a lot of time. It’s no wonder that by mid-semester, we’re all dying! Taking a mid-semester break would help our batteries recharge and give us some rest after midterms and before we have to start working on final papers and projects.
I may feel different come Thanksgiving and be giving thanks for a week-long break, but right now all I want to do is curl up in a ball and go to sleep. Is that really too much to ask?
