By Katie Bena and Nicola Staples, staff writers
With winter break approaching, students at River Hill are eager for time off school. Whether it is staying at home or traveling on vacation, everyone deserves much needed rest. Students plan on staying home, traveling in state, venturing out of state, or even flying out of the country. However, a few students indicated that due to the new COVID-19 variant, their plans have been impacted and may need to be put on hold.
People are ready to travel for winter break now that the bulk of the population has been vaccinated, but many are doubting whether it is safe to do so. We asked students at River Hill what their winter break plans are, and 59.2% of the respondents said they were staying home, and 39.1% said they were still going to travel. Out of the respondents that said they were traveling, 30.4% of those were people who were traveling out of state, and 3.3% said they are traveling out of the country.
With the variety of responses from students, most have something they are looking forward to over the holidays. One student indicated that with the time off they will, “stay home, toasty under a blanket while drinking hot cocoa and watching movies.” Most are looking forward to this quality time with friends and family, with one student stating, “I plan to visit my grandparents in North Carolina.” Another added, “I’m going to Maine to ski and snowboard with my family… we are gonna spend Christmas in the mountains!” It will be exciting for students and staff to see and visit family that they may have not had the ability to do over the past year. “My cousins are coming over from Canada and I’m seeing them for the first time in 6 years!” one student noted. On the other hand, some people had their plans ruined because of the omicron variant. “We were going to go to Switzerland, but the borders closed because of the new Covid variant, so now we’re just traveling out of state or staying home,” one student responded. This is unfortunate and has led to people having to cancel their plans on such short notice.
Overall, the students at River Hill are awaiting winter break and it can’t come fast enough!