One of the coolest and also stressful things about the Dartmouth D-Plan and quarter system is that we tend to have shorter terms and so our finals come up a lot quicker. But, this also means that I typically get to be done with finals before the holidays! (Yes, even before thanksgiving). With COVID, this past fall term was slightly different in that we took our finals after thanksgiving which I’m not used to and if i’m being honest, I have no idea how students at normal semester schools do it!
All that being said, I’m really excited to be on break right now until classes start back up on January 7th. This year I’ve been working with the FGLI team at Dartmouth as a student director. I plan events for the community, work on junior class specific programming and arguably my favorite— I get to work on our weekly newsletter! I love the people I work with and the FGLI community has such a special place in my heart. So naturally, this break (which we call Winterim at Dartmouth) I’ll be working a lot on programing for our FGLI students, ranging from a talent show (which we call Coffee House) to an alumni panel! Recently the other student directors and I had a Zoom retreat where we all just got to hang out and get to know each other more! We also did instagram takeovers this week which were so much fun; this was just to have our community see who’s working on events and things for them and also give them a chance to interact with us!
Aside from my work with the FGLI team, I’ve really tried to be more present and spend time with my family, especially my younger siblings. I had bought a Nintendo Switch for my birthday back in September and lately, my siblings and I have been playing MarioKart and Animal Crossing together and that has been so much fun and wholesome. I definitely miss my friends so much but we’re all in different states, some even are on the west coast but I really love how most days we send each other memes or Tik Toks and of course when we all are available, we plan to zoom and maybe even watch the Bachelorette! Of course nothing beats being physically with them, but these small moments are definitely a close second! Some things I want to do during this break are: making some earrings, having paint nights with my siblings, wrapping Christmas presents for my family and to just jam out to Christmas music most days because it’s definitely my favorite time of the year.
In preparation for Winter term, I definitely have to check Canvas and go through the syllabi for my classes, buy/find any books I need and get all important dates, office hours, etc. into my bullet journal so I feel prepared once classes start because at Dartmouth we tend to get right into the course material (thank you 10-week term system).
Those are my “plans” for the break but I truly hope everyone has a happy holiday season, and is healthy and happy! <3