Look outside! Leaves changed color and fell from trees. The weather is cooler with every passing day. Enjoying time outside is possible, which is often hard with Gainesville’s average temperature for the year being about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The few weeks of autumn that Florida has slip by. As the days grow shorter, there is no time to enjoy them.
Since Labor Day, which was Sept. 3 this year, students have been hard at work without holidays from class. Our weeks, filled with five days of lectures and discussion groups, became crammed with countless hours of studying.
Halfway through the week, we’re left feeling exhausted and stressed.
Unlike Florida schools, many northern colleges and universities grant students a week off after midterms during the Fall semester. This is a time for many students, who may have not seen family since the end of summer, to return home.
For others, it can be a chance to apply for a Fall semester internship or exciting volunteer opportunity. Regardless, everyone could benefit from a few days without the stress of school.
An extended weekend or a week off seems too good to be true when homework and notes are piled high. In the midst of midsemester exams, there is no relief from the workload or time to feel good about what they already accomplished.
Weekends were created to improve efficiency.
With two days off, we can balance a busy week, and there is time for rejuvenation. This may be enough in the working world where jobs have specific hours. But being a student is an everyday job that consumes free time. It may be the equivalent to working overtime. We balance full course loads and countless other outside activities. Social events and nonacademic work take up a large bulk of time throughout the week. Even when we are on break, many students shift their focus from academics to paying jobs or extensive career research until classes resume.
The addition of a fall break in the semester would increase student productivity drastically.
After a week away from campus, there is a new, stronger desire to succeed and push through the remaining weeks until winter break. A different outlook, which could be the result of an academic break, may result in better grades and studying habits for the remainder of the semester.
Now, students have to survive finals before they can taste freedom from their academics. Efficiency is plummeting as the days wear on and will continue to do so as the days get cooler.
At all other points of the year, there are no extended periods without days off classes. Winter break marks the end of Fall semester and the beginning of Spring. Spring Break is a great relief, but there is nothing that resembles it during the long months between August and Thanksgiving.
Without opportunities to take a break, it’s far easier to feel exhausted and stressed from normal day-to-day activities.
Weekends are filled with football, but there are only so many hours we can give for our love of the Gators before we need to hit the books.
Good studying habits got each of us into this university, and to survive here, we need time to keep them up.
Abby Wolz is a health science freshman at UF. Her column appears on Thursdays. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
