REBEKAH GREEN
STAFF WRITER

There’s no shame in driving to school on the first day of spring semester with Christmas music playing in the stereo. It is still winter, and not everyone has packed away her holiday lights. I haven’t quite packed the vacation away—at least not mentally. If you spend the holidays the way that makes you the happiest, leaving that feeling can be a bit sad. People spend the holidays in diverse ways, so it’s safe to assume that people transition to school-mode in different ways as well. Some students have to travel long distances from home to return to dorms or nearby apartments. Others, like me, commute from home to school. Once late January nears, it is as though you can go in one of two directions: preparation mode or denial. I can honestly say that denial comes in full force for me after New Year’s, and preparation mode sets in right around a day or two before class commences. The transition from winter break to spring semester is significantly different and yet still similar to the summer break to fall semester transition.

The pressures vary at the start:

1.Trying to work out that “perfect” schedule that gets necessary classes in and still manages to fit well with a work schedule.

2.Feeling uncertain about a class once you are in it and having to rearrange said “perfect” schedule.

3.Even deciding which books to buy and which ones to possibly skip on for the sake of saving money.

Switching to school mode could include some or all of the things above and more, but as a student I realized that it comes with the job. And if this is your first year in university, you will begin to notice the trends of these pressures and figure out how you can handle each one. When you think of the transition that way, it becomes easier to handle going back to school. I realize not everyone may have as tough a time dealing with this. The anxieties are still a reality though, and it’s important to remember that as a student, you are not alone in this.

Going back to school-mode was tough as a child, though no one really told me that it would get easier as I got older. Soon, once all of the initial pressure to get reorganized at university dies down, the time will speed up and we will wonder where it went. All of this reminds me of the quote that many believe Dr. Seuss said: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” I’ll keep that note in my planner.