Back to the grind

After a semester of hard work that culminates in a harried week of pulling all-nighters and studying for exams, who wouldn’t relish the idea of a whole month without classes, professors or homework.

But when winter break is over and it’s time to get back to school, most college students quickly realize that it’s harder than they thought to get back into their routine of classes, professors and homework.

Several Temple University students felt they did not have much of a break since they were keeping their hectic schedules by working or interning over the holiday.

Temple senior and biochemistry major Candice Carlile said she was not ready to admit that it was the beginning of a new semester, and felt the 40 hours she worked near Scranton every week over break was an easier schedule to manage than her current class schedule.

“Over break you go to work from eight to five and have a set schedule, whereas in school you have a set class schedule but who knows when you will do your homework,” Carlile said.

While Carlile was able to get away from campus for a few weeks, Joyce Fanega, a senior anthropology major, spent three weeks of her vacation working on campus. She said spending so much time here helped ease her transition back to school.

“I think it helped because I never really left campus. I saw the same buildings every day and didn’t have a chance to forget this place,” Fanega said.

Carlile said it rarely takes her a week or two to get back into her school mindset.

Furthermore, Carlile sees her desire to continue on to graduate school as motivation to do well in the last semester of her undergraduate career.

“My classes pertain directly to grad school so I can’t slack off,” she said. “I’m going to use this information next year.”

Fanega agreed that it only takes a few weeks to get motivated again, but said that “waking up for 8:40s” was the worst part about coming back to college.

Both Fanega and Carlile agreed that while it can be quite difficult to come back to school, there is an upside in returning to Temple.

“I live in the middle of nowhere where there really isn’t anything to do,” said Carlile. “It’s nice to be back in Philly where there’s always something going on.”

Fanega added, “It’s cool to be able to see friends again that you haven’t seen since last semester.”