Column:

No fall break make Polina go crazy

By Polina Yamshchikov

Published Oct. 26, 2007

I got a flood of phone calls in the last month from my friends at other colleges.

"Polina! What are you doing for fall break? Want to go to Chicago for a few days or something?"

Needless to say, I hung up on all of these people.

I hate that we don't get a fall break. MU tries to play it off as fair by fleshing out our Thanksgiving break past the requisite two days, but that clearly does not make up for it at all. Almost everyone I know would prefer to have a few days off now than an entire week later.

It is nearing the end of October, and everyone I know can't handle school any longer. Well, perhaps that is poor phrasing. Everyone I know is desperate and driven to boredom and madness by the repercussions of midterms and group projects and that inevitable research paper.

I have fallen into the most apathetically dull routine. I have taken to just sleeping through classes or just knowingly skipping to read in the dying autumn light.

I just can't help but feel this crawling under my skin, like some caged animal clawing at my innards in an attempt to flee.

I think I just need to get away.

The fact that my Thanksgiving break will be longer than that of my peers does not console me at all. In fact, an extra three days of family is just as, if not more so, distressingly taxing as three days of papers and exams.

Extra time over Thanksgiving break means extra time for my godmother to brood and peck over my life as if it were her own nest egg. She will probably tell me I look plumper than when she saw me last and then proceed to give me the next gift in a line that has been traditionally questionable at best. Last Christmas, she sent me a vomit-colored scarf, or at least I think it was a scarf. It just as well may have been a towel, table runner or belt. Maybe it could double as a cape.

Anyway...

What makes the situation worse is the dark twist the weather always takes at this point in the semester. Clouds move in on the sun, the sky finds itself a shade of lightless gray and I have no choice but to retire my ridiculous white Ray-Bans for the rest of the semester. Sundresses are no more. The only things to look forward to in the coming weeks are coats by necessity and chapped lips. Damn it.

A fall break would do so nicely nestled in the schedule right after midterms as a needed break for students who have spent so much time at Club Ellis that the librarians

can recognize them by major.

Students could escape this town, escape responsibility and, for a few sweet days, wander around Chicago or go apple picking or visit friends in New York.

I know a few people who would take the time to catch up on the sleep they sacrificed in favor of their grade-point averages. I could probably use three days to clean my apartment.

It just seems stupid that a majority of students are against this bizarre rationing of our precious time off, and yet I can't see a change in sight.

I mean, having a fall break works at other colleges, so why not this one? Attendance and effort in classes would improve after students return, bright-eyed and refreshed from their wanderings.

My roommates and I would probably even stop watching reruns of "America's Next Top Model" instead of going to our midday classes. Oh, sacrifice.

pvyrmf@mizzou.edu