As I’m sure most people noticed the second that December rolled around, the winter recess this year was noticeably shorter than it has been in recent years. Most people seem to feel very strongly about losing even a few days off of their break.

Cat Cao says, “It’s a little bit ridiculous because we do have time off, but kids want to have fun. We don’t get the opportunity to enjoy ourselves while balancing it out with seeing our families because the break is so short.” She characterizes the break as being separated into three sections. Several of the days are designated for the holidays and spending time with family, such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. Generally, the days in the middle of the break are, for those of us who don’t procrastinate too much, when you’d finish your homework. The rest of the break is designated free time. Because the break this year is only a little over a week, Cat says that we don’t get as much free time as we deserve.

In many ways, I agree. I think days off during the school year are extremely important for students to rest their minds and bodies and recover from the stresses and demands of school. This is especially true for the many students in Ward Melville who tackle clubs, sports, and outside activities all on top of their work. I certainly appreciate any extra days I am given to stay up late binge-watching Netflix  and wake up as late as I want to. I like having the opportunity to clean my room and organize myself for when I go back to school. Like any human, I love being off from school.

But on the other hand, I don’t think the shorter break was really that terrible. I get very bored very easily. Once I get the things done that I have to do, I don’t really have the motivation to do much else. Or I think that I’ll certainly have enough time later on, so I don’t need to do that thing right now. But time is limited. And maybe this break was a wakeup call reminding us of that.

So maybe this break, instead of worrying that you didn’t have enough time to spend time with your family, we hope you did your homework and treasured the time you did get. Remember to make the most of it.