Labor Day. Fall Break. Thanksgiving Break.
Students have a pretty sweet deal. We have vacations to look forward to throughout each semester.
Tell me something I don’t know, you say? Well, how about this: Once we’ve exited the education system and entered into the professional world, vacation days will be less of a given.
I know I do not need to remind college students to appreciate our vacation days. We are all counting down the days until Thanksgiving break (which is 16 days away, in case you’ve lost count). But we do not always realize the gift that these days are.
Our entire academic careers, from kindergarten until today, our school calendars have included vacation days. Days our teachers, and now our professors, cannot require us to come to class. We get to use these days however we like. While our breaks towards the end of the semester may resemble stay-at-home work days rather than true days of rest, a day which we get to decide how to spend is a gift no matter how we spend it.
In a few years, our calendars will no longer have these built-in days. Sure, there will still be Labor Day, and Thanksgiving will certainly occur, but we may not have these days off from work. (Ok, unless you are in residency studying to become a doctor, I am pretty sure we all get Thanksgiving off, but we may not have the three-day break like we do this year.)
The point of this message? Let us enjoy the days off we have stretching before us. Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and that three month respite we call summer break.
These breaks give us a chance to regroup from all that goes on during the school year. We have the opportunity to see our family and to simply have a change of scenery.
All of those things are wonderful, but our vacations are more than that; they can remind us of where we are in life. We are at a stage where someone higher above us is looking out for us. We have administrators who plan the academic calendar with our interests in mind. People we do not even know are trying to make decisions based on what will be best for us.
How many other people can say that? We are lucky. Not only because our next vacation is a mere two weeks away but also because of all that it implies.
A vacation is a sign that we are sandwiched between people who are looking out for us. Because of people here at Baylor who have our interests in mind, we have the chance to have a break from classes and go home to people we love.
As we count down the days until Thanksgiving break, let us remember this implication of our excitement. We are counting down to a manifestation of the way our community cares for us…and to pumpkin pie.
Kara Blomquist is a senior BIC student majoring in linguistics.