Column:

Students need a break more than ever

By Andrea Fuhrer

Published Nov. 13, 2008

It's that time of the year. The time when warm fall days yield to weather that makes you wish you could live inside an oven, the time when you can actually justify wearing scarves and Ugg boots, and the time of the year when you just can't fathom how you're going to make it through this semester alive.

The weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving break are an excruciatingly painful time for many college students. For many of us, it can feel as though Thanksgiving break is as far away as our 40th birthdays or receding hairlines. Our professors are laying on the homework and exams are popping up out of nowhere. It's easy to feel scared, overwhelmed and really freaking sick of school. But don't fret my friends, you're not in this alone.

The wait for Thanksgiving break is driving me insane as well and I've got plenty of proof.

Late one night last week, I was alarmed by a loud, pained squealing coming from outside my window. Being the curious soul that I am, I pulled back the curtains and peered out my window, craning my neck to see what was going on. Much to my surprise, no one was torturing small animals underneath my window. It was simply a large group of girls singing (screeching, whatever) a Taylor Swift song at the top of their lungs. Clearly, this wait must be driving them insane also.

And all of the schoolwork insanity is likely to cause some stress eating, which is just what everyone needs before the holidays, right?

I've got a box of cake batter hidden away in my cabinet, just waiting to jump into its next bowl of ice cream, and I'll probably require many bowls in the next week, considering how many tests I'll have. My upstairs neighbors must be taking their study snacks to a whole new level though, because the ridiculous noises they make walking across the room indicate either they weigh 600 pounds or they're still trying to master "the worm" (which, by the way, is no longer cool). And because of the extremely irritable mood studying puts me in, I'm usually not thrilled when I'm woken up by obnoxious noises. One particularly bad night, I actually dug a broom out of my closet and I was fully prepared to start banging on the ceiling with it. Fortunately, this is the only cranky old woman stunt I've pulled lately.

And because all of my brain cells are currently being devoted to studying things that I will never use again, such as economics and French, the common sense and motor skills I use daily have suffered. While cooking, I forget that I have opened cabinets, and then I proceed to smash my head into their open doors (and sadly, the string of curse words that follow are never in French). I lose control of my extremities and drop things, like a dumbbell that narrowly misses my foot, or an entire Sonic Route 44 soda all over my carpet. And I'm ashamed to admit that on more than one occasion, I've walked out to my car alone, climbed into the passenger's seat and closed the door. Needless to say, I haven't gotten very far with this approach to driving.

As you can see, these past few weeks have been awfully rough on college students. Luckily, there are only seven days until Thanksgiving break, 35 days until winter break and only 41 days until Christmas, when we should all receive an abundance of amazing gifts and fat envelopes of cash as a reward for all of the stress of the semester.

We can make it.