5 Myths About Thanksgiving Break
Finally break is nearly here! Thanksgiving break cannot come soon enough in your mind. Food, family, and sleep await you, but do these ideas really reflect what your Thanksgiving break will be like?
You’ve never experienced Thanksgiving break before as a college student. What is normal to expect of this time at home? Learn what 5 myths you shouldn’t believe about this break below!
Myth #1: You’ll get caught up on homework.
I’m not sure where this myth started, but breaks are almost never a time of productivity. Unless you’re an exceptionally-driven student who hasn’t used up the last reserve of motivation, this Thanksgiving break will be almost impossible to spend on homework.
Having plans to get caught up on past-due assignments or work ahead on end-of-the-year projects is admirable. The reality is, however, that your brain needs a break.
In an article for Psychology Today, Meg Selig points to breaks as a way to restore motivation. Mental breaks can also work to increase productivity as well as creativity. “Working for long stretches without breaks,” Selig comments, “leads to stress and exhaustion. Taking breaks refreshes the mind, replenishes your mental resources, and helps you become more creative.”
This time out of classes may actually benefit you academically, according to Selig, if you take a complete rest period from your work. Selig shares, “During a rest period, it appears that the brain reviews and ingrains what it previously learned.”
Rather than feeling guilty about taking a break (maybe even one you don’t feel like you deserve), use this time to recharge. Resting from your schoolwork can give you the mental strength to push through finals week shortly after you return to college.
Myth #2: You’ll catch up on sleep.
Your sleep is incredibly important, especially when you’re a young adult. In an article for Time Magazine Alice Park states, “If every one of us slept as much as we’re supposed to, we’d all be lighter, less prone to developing Type 2 diabetes and most likely better equipped to battle depression and anxiety.”
The temptation in college is to make sleep a lower priority. Maybe you value socializing, being involved in multiple extracurriculars, or your grades more than sleep. However, realize that making adequate sleep a lower priority comes with some consequences, since sleep, according to Park “is the only time the brain has to catch its breath.”
During break, you most likely will get more rest than you have in a long time. However, this break doesn’t possess magical powers. You won’t get completely “caught up” on your sleep, but getting extra sleep is not a hopeless cause this break.
If you want to get extra sleep, you will have to make an intentional effort to make it happen. You will likely need to say no to spending time with friends and family. You will likely have to skip a late night showing to a movie or a Black Friday spending spree. You will need to make getting to bed early a priority, which means refusing to a 1 a.m. Disney+ binge session.
Getting extra sleep is worth it. After this break, your body and mind will be grateful you made getting sleep a priority.
Myth #3: Home life will be the same.
You’ve changed since August. You’re not exactly the same person. In your mind, though home is the same. Your mom is the same, your dad is the same, your siblings are the same, the house is the same, etc. Warning: this idyllic mental picture of your home isn’t accurate.
Since you left for college, life at home is slightly different. Just as you have changed, grown, and developed so has your family. Don’t be surprised if you come home and your room is now serving a different purpose, your siblings have privileges they didn’t have before, and your parents seem to have changed too.
Change at home doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact you may return to find many good changes. However, any kind of change can be hard, especially when you weren’t expecting it. Expect home to still be home but a slightly different one to the home you left.
Myth #4: Your high school friends haven’t changed.
You might still be in contact with some of your closest high school friends, even though you haven’t seen each other in months. In the past, you could always rely on these friends. They were there for you in the good, the bad, and the downright ugly times of your high school years.
Since high school, however, all of you have changed. Just as you are changing as a person so are your high school friends. You may have already noticed some slight changes, like less communication or little to no communication.
Your friendships probably won’t be exactly the same, but that is okay. These friendships may take more work now than they once did, so expect some slight awkwardness. Much has changed, and yet now that you’re together it feels that little has changed. Know this awkward feeling is normal.
Myth #5: You can come and go like you did at college.
When you lived at home, you followed certain rules. Now a college student, you come and go as you please at school. You don’t have to check in with parents. You may not even have a curfew. You can stay up all night as many nights as possible at college, but don’t expect the rules at home to be the same.
Your parent(s) may have a hard to adjusting to your late night schedule. Your parent(s) may also expect you to live under the same rules that you did in high school. While this may feel insulting or stifling, know that your parents will eventually adjust to you being an independent adult, but this process will take time.
Be prepared to ask permission or check-in much more than you do at college. Be prepared to stay in some nights when you want to go out. Be prepared to be treated somewhat the same as when you were in high school.
Remember that only months ago you lived under those rules. A few months may not mentally register as being enough time for you to have earned these new freedoms in the mind of your parent(s).
Thanksgiving break can be a great time away from college, if you know what you should and shouldn’t expect. Anticipate this break for what it most likely will be and enjoy the break from school. Your brain needs the break!
