Unbelievably, we are well into November and headed straight towards Thanksgiving Break. The stores are fully decked with holiday decorations and merchandise. United Airlines just added an additional horde of flights. And many of us are quietly whispering about holiday plans: who’s going where for the annual turkey feast, even if a quarantine is the appetizer of choice this year.
On campus the trappings of the imminent holiday season may be hardly visible. Instead, it’s the usual crush of readings, papers, projects, presentations and performances. The push running up to the end of the semester is on. In any other year, the campus library would be abuzz with caffeine drunk students. Every seat on the 24-hour floor would be taken, and there would be a palpable air of finally getting down to business.
Not so in the Fall of 2020. Some students have passed many weeks already logged onto their Zoom classrooms and plodding away in their childhood bedrooms. For those students who returned to campus, it has been a different, quieter day-to-day as compared with semesters past. Somedays, the dinner line outside the dining hall has been the only sure sign of life. The hallways have been more still. The fraternity has not been beckoning for attention with that regular party on the lawn. And much of the nighttime buzz has been occurring behind the closed doors of socially distant dorm rooms, suites, apartments and Greek houses. Students have kept social plans quiet to avoid the watchful eye of administration. Air B and B parties have been more of a thing.
The end-of-the-semester rush appears to be rolling out no differently than the rest of the preceding months. If anything, things are getting tighter. Virus counts are up across the country and college campuses are feeling this surge too. More students are on quarantine. So this Fall there will be fewer stuffy common room all-nighters with floormates. Many college and university students will not return to campus after the Thanksgiving Break. A Fall that began with unprecedented rules and red tape will quietly whimper to a halt, with classmates once again scattered across the nation. The Zoom community will share this moment.
Given that there is more warning this Fall than we had last Spring, how can college students make this run up to the finish line of the semester more successful? Here are a few ideas:
· Stay connected to campus friends while at home. Every professor and college has its own quirks. Campus friends understand the unique policies and pressures of your own school which can help assure that you nail all those last little boxes. As we all have learned in the past eight months, talking to people who know you outside your family COVID bubble can go a long way in just plain keeping you sane.
· Reunite with friends at home in a socially distant and responsible manner. Your childhood pals have known you through thick and thin in the past. They know the history of your favorite bands and can hook you up with a new playlist to fire you up. In this unprecedented time, your home friends can keep you rooted.
· Set up a study area at home. Turkey day and all that it portends will be the initial focus of attention. However, you’ll thank yourself later for taking the time to set things up so that you can get your school work done when the final crunch time descends. The name of the game, when all is said and done, is to stay on course academically.
· Maintain a regular sleep/wake schedule. Once you arrive home and there’s no real need to leave the house, it can be tempting to stay in bed much of the day. Fight this temptation. Be strong. Making yourself stick to a weekday schedule that resembled your schedule at school will help you stay disciplined in your class work.
· Eat well and exercise daily. It matters. Yes, it does. It’s annoying, but if you take good care of yourself, you will have more energy to tackle your last assignments of the semester with zeal. It will also help keep you healthy into 2021.