Winter break and winterim combined can create a long break from school especially if you do not take any classes. It adds up to about five weeks long.

The break can be nice as you have more free time, but it can get to be long. A lot of students take classes or work and some just take a break from everything. Whatever each student chooses, there is always an adjustment going back and forth with school.

My winter break was spent hanging out with hometown friends and family, reading books, playing tennis and relaxing in general. It was a nice, good, long relaxing break … then I came back to school.

I went from having all the free time in the world, being able to spend time with family and friends and doing whatever I wanted to being thrown back into everything.

Classes, clubs, sports, everything started right away. I went from zero to one hundred in a matter of a week.

It’s great seeing friends and being back to the college experience, but it can also be a hard transition.

Things are ever-changing. When you go home for break, you get into the mindset of catching up on the relaxing activities you want or getting back into the groove of working. It is resituating back into a routine.

Then you get back to school and have to resituate yourself again.

Winter break is such a weird concept at times. You leave school, your friends and everything you have established here for a little over a month; going back to the life you lived before college. Then you have to leave that again and reestablish what you built at school.

This is the second winter break that I have had and from these two experiences, I have learned some ways to get back to college life.

The first thing that helps me a lot is setting a schedule. By doing this I get used to what I have to do each day. On Sunday, I plan out everything I have to do for the week in order to get used to my new schedule again and spread the work out.

After I have everything planned out, I make sure to plan time with friends. These people are your support system. They are important to see again and have some fun with.

I also try to make some time for myself as well. Yes, there is not as much time as there was over winter break but taking some time to relax and focus on your own needs is important, too. That can be anything from watching a movie to journaling to going to a workout class.

Make time for whatever is important to you. Yes, we have classes and clubs, but college only lasts so long so make sure to enjoy it while you can.

Overall, I just try to get back into the flow of what I was doing before winter break. Figure out what you need and adjust.

Geske can be reached at [email protected].