By Claire Burnett, The Current Co-Editor-in-Chief
After a relaxing Thanksgiving break, students are back in school for a seemingly grueling four weeks until winter break. With only one half day throughout the entire four weeks, students are eagerly awaiting winter break. Sophomore Dara Asante mentioned “I’m excited because the holidays are almost here…I have a lot of family coming over, I get to spend time with friends, and I won’t have any homework.”
Many students have expressed their dislike of the period between Thanksgiving and winter break. Dara suggested “I think the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is way too long. I feel like winter break should start one or two weeks before the holidays.” Freshman Annika Borowski also said “The one problem I have is that winter break starts the day before Christmas Eve, which is annoying.”
Four full weeks of learning in between two weeks of no school and relaxation can be dreadful for students who just want school to be over and move onto winter break and the holidays. Freshman Kate Doyle commented, “I’m really excited for break because I won’t have any school work and I’ll get to sleep in.”
While four weeks of school may seem like a short period of time, classes are starting to become stressful as the end of the marking period approaches as well as the impending midterms. Being nearly half way through the second marking period, students have to start thinking about their grades for the end of the quarter and midterms.
Just two weeks after students return from winter break, midterms are scheduled for all high school students in Howard County. This short turnaround to midterms can be frightening for students since they can easily forget material learned before break. With winter break being a mandatory homework-free break, students must take it upon themselves to review material in preparation for midterms. However, Annika mentioned “I don’t want to study that much over break because I’m with family so I won’t have many opportunities for studying.” Similarly, Dara added, “I’ll probably procrastinate studying for midterms and study for science last after break.”
After having a long Thanksgiving break, it seems like winter break is a far finish line in the future. To alleviate this stress, there are numerous events that students can enjoy such as the winter dance concert, the winter pep rally, orchestra and band concerts, and sporting events.
Despite the stress between breaks, students can eventually look forward to 10 glorious days of celebrating the holidays, relaxation, spending time with family and friends, and most importantly, no school or homework!