It’s that time of year again. Tornados and storms are giving way to warm, sunny weather. On Tech’s campus, spring weather always brings the same two changes to the student population.
First, everyone suddenly has the urge to wear track shorts everywhere they go.
Second, everyone begins to show the symptoms of senioritis.
It’s a common misconception that only seniors suffer from this sickness. While it’s true that seniors tend to have the worst cases of senioritis, its effects are shown all over campus: even instructors suffer from it.
I blame spring break. Nothing makes you dread daily classes and homework like having one week of pure, uninterrupted relaxation and partying.
It’s like going to a buffet and eating all your favorite junk foods, then going home and eating nothing but celery for the next three months.
Spring break is supposed to be this great mini vacation to keep you from getting burnt out during the semester. The weird thing is the only reason we get burnt out before spring break is that practically every instructor puts an exam the week before the break starts.
I can’t help but wonder if we wouldn’t be less stressed out if we didn’t have a spring break. Instructors don’t want us to worry about tests and projects over the break. I appreciate that.
But why not just spread out the due dates? There’s no rule that says the week before or after break all classes must have a giant stressful assignment.
It isn’t a big deal if one class has an exam the Friday before the break and one class has an exam the Wednesday after. It’s a huge deal when you have two projects and three exams the week before break.
The way things are now, you go through one abnormally awful week and then spend a week at the beach doing nothing but drinking beer and working on your tan.
By the final Saturday of the break, all you can think about is how much you hated having so many midterms crammed in to one week. You head back to campus and that stressed feeling automatically returns.
Plus, now you’ve been spoiled by a week of doing nothing. You have no motivation left. You do the bare minimum to keep your grades up.
Most of your time is spent staring at your calendar trying to make it mid-June by sheer willpower.
I guarantee that over half of the students reading this article have, at some point this past week, calculated the smallest amount of points they still need to earn to pass their classes.
Even the 4.0 students among us are dragging their feet.
We’re all tired. At this point, it’s a victory just to crawl to class and pay attention.
So if you came back from spring break and suddenly found yourself daydreaming of running out of the lecture hall, hopping in your car and driving back to the beach, just know that you are not alone.
Your classmates and instructor are all wishing they could do the same.
