Something both myself and many other freshmen have been missing from high school are days off!!! We get absolutely no (ok we had 1) days off for holidays here at Penn State. I don’t know about other students, but this really takes a toll out of me. I loved having that one or two days off of school where I can purely rest! Ya maybe teachers gave a little more work, but it was my time to sleep and do things for myself! At Penn State, I have barely found any time to fully relax and take some time out of my day for myself. So I think I can make a statement for all freshmen that we cannot wait till Thanksgiving break! And we get a whole week off!
In high school we did not have long breaks like we do in college, this is something that is completely different. There are more numerical breaks in high school than college, however, there are longer breaks in college. At Penn State and other colleges, we may not get one or two days off here and there but we get a week off for Thanksgiving which high schools do not, and we get about a month off for Christmas in between semesters! So in the end it kind of balances out. We may be burnt out by the end of the semester, but we get longer breaks to recover.
Before coming to Penn State, I thought I would come home at least once or twice to see my family because I thought I would miss being home. It didn’t take me long to realize how much I loved it here and found myself never attempting to go home either from too much work, too any activities on weekends, or purely because I wanted to stay at school. However, as the semester has moved on and every student has been working tirelessly for their classes, everyone cannot wait to go home for Thanksgiving break!! This past week has been very difficult as everyone is discussing rides home and talking to old friends back home, but we are all so very close to our own breaks. Or as I’m going to call it, my crashtime.
I definitely agree with you on this point! I’m used to having so many breaks throughout the year from all of my schools. My school in Singapore honored all of the major holidays from every major religion, so we were always on break, my school in California had either a late start or an early dismissal every week, and my school in Pennsylvania was a private school on a trimester schedule, so our breaks were much more numerous. I think another factor that contributes to this feeling of stress and over-tiredness is the fact that we live on campus. In high school, once we left school and got back home, we were done. Even if we had work or class the next day, we could simply forget about it and ignore it all night until we woke up the next day. Here, though, we live on campus, so we are constantly surrounded by our classrooms, teachers, classmates, and of course our homework; we can’t get away,, so the feeling of being trapped in school is magnified.
I really like how relatable your posts are, and your thoughts perfectly encapsulate mine! Saying I’m excited for Thanksgiving break is the biggest understatement. Although I love college and all the new experiences, I have found it hard to manage and balance my time with the strenuous workload that comes with being an honors student at Penn State. Whether it is a weekday or the weekend, I still find myself stressed from too much work and staying up until 3 or 4 AM trying to finish an assignment. With that said, I am undoubtedly ready to take an actual “break”, reunite with my family, and finally relax.
I agree that a huge change from high school to college is that in high school, the semesters are longer, but there are short breaks and days off scattered throughout. In college, it’s much busier with less time off, but the longer breaks certainly make it worth it!