Over the entirety of the last break we had from school, I slept in my own bed at home all of two times total.

If that does not already scream stressful to you then I don’t know what does.

We have officially entered the holiday season and, by default, finals season. We had our Thanksgiving break and now we are in the home stretch before we get to actually relax for a while.

I know, I can’t believe it either.

My break hardly felt like a break after spending it in three different houses over the short week. The more people I talk to, this apparently was not an uncommon occurrence.

It can be really difficult to fit in spending time with everyone over breaks. Spending a good amount of time with each individual person can seem to be nearly impossible when we only get a few days off at a time.

I would like to think that I spent this last break with everyone I care about.

The first few days of my break were spent with my boyfriend, Josh. I spent my days with him as sick as I’d ever felt in my life.

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with him and his family on Wednesday. This was the very first time I have spent a holiday with a significant other and it honestly meant the world to me that they allowed me to celebrate with them.

After spending time with Josh and his family, I drove back to Pittsburgh Wednesday night to see my own family. My actual Thanksgiving was spent at my grandma’s house before my parents had to go and work for the remainder of the day. That is a whole different issue that I won’t even try to get into at the moment.

I could rant on and on for hours about the unfairness of stores being open on Thanksgiving Day, but I’ll just say this: Thanksgiving Day should be a day of family and food comas, not Walmart runs and fighting over TVs that no one actually needs.

The real fun started Friday morning at 5 a.m. when my siblings, my aunt, my grandma and I all left to go Black Friday shopping. I was able to get some of my Christmas shopping done really early this year and spend time with my family.

Now I’m back on campus and I am (kind of) ready to get the rest of this semester over with. I keep telling myself that we are all only here for a couple more weeks and then we get to go home and spend time with family and friends for more than a few days at a time.

Knowing that is probably the only thing that is going to get me through the next few weeks that will ultimately be filled with projects and papers and exams. I hope that it goes quickly for everyone and remains as stress-free as it could possibly be.

Although that is a lot easier said than done, I’m looking forward to getting everything over with as far as finals go.

After all of this, we can get back home to our families and have a fresh start in the new semester after a very well-deserved break from all of the hard work we have done these last few months.

HARLEE BOEHM
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