It's Thanksgiving break and it's time to break out those "beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, ram, hog..."you know the rest of that meme. Thanks Pastor Shirley. But, it's not like your high school years anymore. Those years in high school or below where you spent hours in bed or in front of a tv, dragged from relative to relative's houses, catching up with the cousins, and becoming the biggest glutton that ever lived by eating yourself to a death-like slumber. Those were simple times.

Fast forward to this day now. You're in college, with a job, have friends who are more family than your actual relatives (and more tolerable to boot), and a home cooked meal seems like just a dream. But that's not even the "fun" part. Remember all that work you slacked off on a bit or that semester long project that was announced in the beginning that was put off? Well this week is considered as the ultimate "make-or-break" period of the semester. Makes you wonder why most drop dates do not occur after Thanksgiving break. But, I digress. It's truly a case of "damned if I do or damned if I don't" depending on how you progressed through the semester.

As a current grad student, I feel this pain so much. Therefore, I am here to remind you what this week is. It is a Thanksgiving BREAK! The keyword is BREAK. You can count all the stressing and freaking out over the work undone as working yourself to death. Take a BREAK. This is a week where you have a chance to collect yourself and create a plan of action. If you find yourself bored with working on assignments, TAKE A BREAK! It is so vital that one should not tax their own brainpower to ridiculous levels. It will not get the work done, especially when you hit the deadly burnout stage. When that happens, who knows when you will get out of it. Some may never come out of burnout. So, for your mental health's sake, TAKE A BREAK! By break, I mean stop taxing your mind so much. Take the time to relax, do nothing, spend time with family and friends, catch up on that video game you started playing weeks ago, jam to your favorite songs, especially those Christmas jams that are blaring through right now, and most of all, take care of yourself. Giving yourself that break will make your mind, body, and spirit work as one to push you through this semester's end, otherwise they will not hesitate to quit on you, especially at the worst possible time. To all my fellow colleagues and others, Happy Thanksgiving and have a wonderful BREAK.