There are a few of us, me included, who thought that the winter holiday was a bit too long. Do not get me wrong, I was more than ready to be done with school for a bit. However, after about the third week in, things became a bit boring and repetitive. There is nothing wrong with having a routine, but sleeping in till about 9:30 in the morning, binge watching shows on Netflix and staying up all hours of the night is not so appealing 13 days in a row. Then there were some, pretty much everyone else, who thought that the month off was too short. They were not tired of the whole binge watch staying up late thing. Either way, 2015 is here and we all have to deal with it. So rather than being bitter about returning to school, we should all just accept the fact that we have to be here for about four and a half months. If you think about, that time will fly by. Is there much to complain about then? Not at all.
Now that we have that established, let me be the first, or I suppose one of the firsts, to say welcome back! As this is a new year, you have to put your best foot forward and try to make the best of it. If you made any New Year resolutions, try your best to stick to them. It is not always ideal with all that you may have going on, but I am sure that you will feel a whole better if you stick to it and actually accomplish your goals. You know if you do not, you will only end up feeling like crap, going to the store, buying more junk food than you really need or want and go home to binge watch “Friends” to supposedly make yourself feel better. Will you feel better after completing this activity? Be honest: binge watching “Friends” might make you happy, but eating all that unnecessary food and “wasting” all that time might not be a good idea. I say I never regret my Netflix watching habits, but the little voice in my head disagrees.
Now that you are back at school, you will most likely begin to feel the pressure building up once again. The pressure to make straight A’s coming from your parents of the scholarship committee is much more intense than you remembered. It seems like you bit off more than you can chew for the time being. If and when that happens, find the thing that relaxes you most and make it part of your routine. Spend time with your friends, go out bar hopping and maybe even go running? Just make sure that you are able to complete all your work and not fall behind because of said activities. That will not make the situation better at all.
The thing to keep in mind to make it through the semester is that in about four short months, it will be summer vacation. Imagine sitting under the warmth of the summer sun while your teeth are rattling from the cold as you walk from class to class. Start making your summer plans now! You might need to start saving for all that traveling that might take place, or perhaps you are going to use the summer as an opportunity for employment? For some of us, myself included, May means graduation. I cannot being to describe how excited I am to FINALLY be done with school. I have started counting the days until I walk across that stage and receive my degree.
If that does not make you happy, and does not seem worth the effort of getting from point A to point B, we need to have a serious conversation.
With all that being said, we at The Houstonian want to welcome all you wonderful Bearkats back to campus. We know that there are times where school is not what you want to be doing with your life, but keep in mind that what you are working towards now will be more than worth it in the long run. At least we can only hope. There is this saying: “Pick a major that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life because that field probably isn’t hiring.” We do not ever want you to find yourself in that situation, so work as hard as you can! We hope that this semester does not prove to be too difficult for you, and that you make it through everything with little to no meltdowns as possible.