I look at my calendar and I have to remind myself that Thanksgiving and Christmas break are closer than ever. I am extremely blessed to attend college, but I’ve been “schooling” for almost three months now. The weekends are busy, and now on top of school work holiday planning is essential. Every student is hitting a wall, but we’ve got to push through. As I talk to my peers, I don’t feel so alone when I discover that we all do the same things as our holiday breaks approach.

1. The feeling we get when we realize how much more work we have to do until break

To all students and generally busy people out there, We can do it! But, sometimes our blood, sweat, and tears get in the way of completing our work.

2. Getting distracted by early Holiday commercials.

I’m already seeing Black Friday sales commercials and those iconic Christmas ads all over. I start imagining my break and getting excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it makes my motivation level go way down. I start thinking of the beautiful lights, the elegant music, snow, the FOOD. You get the point.

3. Laying in bed on Netflix or social media for a longer period of time than usual.

Sadly, this is typical routine for a lot of people. But it increases though during this time of year. I’m a person that has a very tight routine. Last week, I started a Netflix series on a school night. It’s only downhill from here.

4. Your emotions are harder to control than your appetite.

Sometimes I’ll think of something that's only a little funny, but i’ll start hysterically laughing for minutes and I can’t control it. I’ll also see something that’s not really sad and I'll start crying. When we are so busy, we forget how to handle our emotions. Our mental health always needs to come first. It’s just a little sporadic towards the end of the semester.

5. Rushing and not being in the moment.

I catch myself multiple times a day focusing on the future instead of now. I have to remind myself that while I may be busy, God gave me this moment for a reason. I’m going to live in it and work hard. Then my holiday breaks will be even more rewarding.

6. Not giving 100% of attention to school work.

This is dangerous, but it happens. Last week, I just felt like skipping my reading for an online quiz so I would have less work to do. Then I got a bad score. To learn what I did after reading this score, just refer to the fourth paragraph.

We all just need to take a deep breath, give our undivided attention to our work, and finish strong. Doing this will make Thanksgiving and Christmas break more rewarding anyway. You can do it!