Thanksgiving weekend

It’s kind of crazy, but Thanksgiving really is the beginning of the end of the fall semester. In other words: Congratulations! You have almost completed your first semester of college!! Whether this is your first time going home, or even if you are staying at school, the long weekend marks a real turning point for so many college students. Here are two of the big things that can come up:

“Ok, so maybe some of that homesickness has finally kicked in...” It’s totally understandable – you have been going along in your semester, enjoying your classes, meeting people, joining clubs, and then Thanksgiving comes, and the homesickness can hit you seemingly out of nowhere. Or, on the other side, maybe you haven’t had the greatest of starts. Your parents are doing your laundry for you again, you have a kitchen at your disposal, and of course, I can’t leave out getting to sleep in your own bed! So, what do you do about it?

For one, if you are home, enjoy your time there! Do the things that feel good to you and that you used to enjoy doing before you left home for college. If you are staying at school, start planning what you want to do when you do go home again. And whether you are home or not, talk/IM/email/Facebook/Skype with your friends and family about all the great things you have been doing with your time in college! If things have been less than ideal, then take the time this weekend to think about what could really turn your experience around. What are the things that are missing that you and your Coach can really work on for the last few weeks of the semester? What are you looking forward to for spring semester?

Above all, reminding yourself of all that you have gotten involved in and accomplished is a really great way to get motivated for getting back to your college life and getting started on all that you have coming up!

“But I just started relaxing! I don’t want to study for finals!”
The long weekend can be a bit of a tease – on the one hand, you want to relax and enjoy some well-deserved time off, but on the other, you know that final papers, projects, and tests are just around the corner. And you know that those final papers, projects, and tests are worth a huge part of your grade, especially compared to high school when maybe you could rely on your homework grade to get you through.

So, how do you want to get on top of your upcoming schedule and still enjoy a little fun and relaxation over the break? Everyone has different styles – what’s going to work best for you? Would you rather get stuff done before the weekend so that you can really enjoy having time off? Or maybe you would rather just do a little now and plan to do the majority over the weekend because you know that’s when you will a lot more time. Just remember to be realistic with yourself, your study habits, and your time – it can be super hard to focus on homework when you have friends from high school waiting to hang out with you!

The bottom line: your finals aren’t going to take care of themselves. The longer you pretend they aren’t coming up, the harder it will be when you actually do get around to studying for them. But the sooner you start, the sooner you will be able to feel rest-assured that your first semester grades are finishing the way you want them to.

Have an awesome long weekend – filled with relaxation, and of course, some good productivity thrown in for good measure.