The three week long luxury of sleeping in comes to an end in mid-January as we return back to school from a well-deserved break. In high school, I remember classes being continuous from fall into spring semester, and winter break was a balance between spending time with friends and refreshing on concepts from the fall semester. However, in college, the semester course schedule means that winter break is “me” time and no school work!
As attractive as “rotting” or lounging around sounds, college life prunes the brain to think critically, and I feel the need to find something to do. Channeling this profound new sense of freedom – the freedom of what seems to be unlimited time – I direct it towards applying for summer programs. Winter break is the best time to focus on summer research applications, graduate school applications, and spring semester job recruitment. All of those applications require a large chunk of time to reflect on and write about life experiences. Every winter break in college, I spend it drafting summer research applications, and most recently, studying for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test). Of course, this can be done with flexible timing, and I can prioritize friend hangouts and family dinners.
My hometown feels both the same and different when I come home from college. When I go home, there’s a feeling of comfort living in the house that I grew up in and not much in the community has changed. Most of my high school friends went to in-state colleges, and they are frequently around the area and hang out with each other in college. In this aspect, it feels very similar to high school. However, being one of the only people from my high school to attend an out-of-state school, I wasn’t able to visit my high school friends for college football game weekends and felt somewhat left out, but I did ultimately find my own community at WashU. I chose to go out-of-state for college because I wanted to branch out of my hometown bubble and learn what it feels like to live on my own. Due to this, it feels slightly different going home because my college experiences are extremely different from my friends at home.
After the long break and fueling my brain with less organic chemistry and protein synthesis mechanisms than usual, the transition back into college can be a slight adjustment. The first week back is usually lighter, with one hour in each class spent on going over the syllabus. However, based on my previous semester, I find it helpful to hit the road running when coming back to school. Although the first week is lighter, the classes will pick up quickly by the second week, so it’s best to get a head start on homework before all of it piles up. Overall, the transition from winter break to college is manageable since there’s applications to be done during the break and the semester system gives rise to new classes in the spring semester.