Summer ended abruptly this year as the first day of school was August 25. After a whopping one day off between August 25 and Thanksgiving, the Staples community was finally granted a four and a half day recess to eat some turkey and stuffing. For me, the school year effectively ended there.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is less than a month of school. At the rate we read in class, that’s barely enough time to finish a book. Even watching a movie is a bit of a stretch. Quite a few of my friends are partial to the saying, “You just have to make it to Thanksgiving” because after Thanksgiving, the motivation for students starts to dwindle.
The seniors are already slumming it due to pre-second semester senioritis, where upwards of 10 episodes of “Revenge” look a lot more appealing than writing a bill for AP Gov. The laziness only escalates from there.
There are significantly more vacation days spread out after Thanksgiving. Before the four day break in November, there are maybe 5 vacation days tops. After, we have Christmas, the long weekend after midterms, February and April break after that.
It becomes less of a marathon, and more like short sprints in between vacation.
I remember my sophomore year, we were watching Joyeux Noel, a Christmas movie, in French class. Our teacher intended for us to discuss the movie before break. This didn’t happen. We had only gotten about 30 minutes into the almost 2 hour long movie before break started.
I kid you not, we watched the same five minutes of that movie twelve times. Our teacher just kept losing where we were. Now, Diane Kruger is an incredible singer, but after hearing her sing “Ave Maria” for the fifth time, she was not really my cup of tea.
Getting through first quarter is no small feat, but I take my solace knowing that I only have to make it to Thanksgiving.
