When I come back to Ithaca College from winter break all nice, relaxed and well-rested, suddenly I feel the grasp of spring semester around my neck. The flooding of emails from professors saying which books you need to get ahead of time, the homework assignments you have to do in advance before you have even settled back into your dorm and the thought of becoming broke all over again.
Don’t get me wrong, fall semester was pretty similar, but for some reason I didn’t feel as stressed as I do now in only the first couple weeks back on campus. Even though the first week of classes was just syllabus week, I already have a load on my back. It’s like professors intentionally try to stress you out by telling you when every paper is due on the first day. I know that it is just to inform the class on how much they will be writing, but it’s not exactly the best way to ease someone’s rattling mind.
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Fall semester most likely seemed easier to handle because of all the breaks we had. In October we had Fall Break, a 4-day weekend to return home and prove to our parents that we enjoy where we go to school. Almost two months later, we have Thanksgiving Break, where we could eat home-cooked meal after home-cooked meal and explain to family members how college is going so well (but really we want it to be over). Then one month after that, we are set free for a little over a month to catch up on all of our lost hours of sleep.
Although we have had this whole month to rejuvenate, Spring semester only has one break, Spring Break and then two months until summer. This may not seem like such a long semester to some of you, it’s actually much shorter than Fall Semester, but the professors cram to fit the whole course within a small time-frame. Students end up reading and writing twice as much work in a shorter amount of time, which makes the semester seem like it is dragging on.
Spring semester is also much sadder than Fall semester. To think that you just finished another year of your college experience is pretty depressing. That means you are this much closer to graduating, going into the “real world” and most likely never seeing these people ever again. I know, depressing right?
I know that this hard-work is the whole point of going to college in the first place, but in the second semester I’ve never wanted to rip my hair out more than I do now. Some of you may think that Fall semester is harder, or Spring semester is not as stressful, but at some point in your college life, there is that stressful period. For me, it is definitely Spring semester.
