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School is back, and we’re not so sure if we’re excited about it. Here’s our list of things we’d have a hard time letting go of:
1. SLEEP
Studies have shown (JMA, 2018) that there is negative correlation between hours of sleep and amount of school workload. As described in this graph:
This semester, we’ll surely miss the holiday nights when your fingers couldn’t count the hours of Noche Buena-induced sleep, the simple thrill of waking up to nothing but silence and realizing that school was still, thankfully, on pause.
2. THE NETFLIX BINGEFEST
The list of Netflix Originals we’ve watched over the break can go on and on and on. We can’t deny that we spent all day laying down in bed bingeing on Netflix’s “Trending Now”. One after the other, new films were being released and we couldn’t help but get sucked into the Netflix void. Unfortunately, the inevitable-start of the sem quickly approached and all we could do was binge watch for 4 hours instead of our usual 12. Now that the semester has come around, we’ve begun to see things differently. We imagine ourselves wearing a blindfold out of fear for the Acads Monster. We see ourselves in a frame with two choice boxes below us whenever we are faced with the decision: “NETFLIX or ACADS”. We make a joke about throwing away school work because Marie Kondo told us to remove things that don’t spark joy. We’ve been totally consumed by Netflix and we love it! Yes, we don’t have to let go of it completely, but …. Netflix :(
3. TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL!!!!!!!
We LOVE to travel. I mean, who doesn’t? Thanks to the break, we finally had time (again) to get that long deserved out-of-town adventure and lucky for us, we even got to visit another country with our family and friends! It’s also fun to learn from the wonderful people belonging to different cultures and backgrounds (especially if may cute *wink* ). It’s an overlooked way of learning without all the stress and sleeplessness.
For those who just stayed at home, going out isn’t the only way to travel. From entering a new world where you play as a Greek god who says “Boy!” every 5 minutes, or by picking up a book and exploring a new landscape where dragons roam and people fight over a chair -- there are endless ways to explore!
Thinking about it though, if you could travel as much as you wanted to, then you would never feel the satisfaction of finishing your last exam and the motivation to endure those long nights studying and working on your papers. The rainbow after the rain makes it all worth it!
4. GIFTS
As children, receiving gifts from our ninongs and ninangs as an annual tradition was probably the highlight of our holidays. But as the years went on, the 10 gifts we were used to receiving reduced to 5 gifts…to 3 gifts…to 1 gift… to an envelope …. and maybe even none at all. Growing up kind of sucked, and we can’t help but miss the satisfaction of receiving gifts.
But last christmas break, we realized that giving gifts was kind of really fun -- almost as fun as receiving them! Gift giving allowed us to get creative and more involved in making things a little bit more special. For some of our friends, simple silly gifts that reminded them of our inside jokes had us talking all night about the hilarious memories we’ve shared. Even helping out the parents prepare the traditional Christmas dinner at home was a fun but also thoughtful gift, since we’ve been so busy with school and away from our families. It’s tiring, sobering but surprisingly euphoric.
5. SLEEP.
Yes, sleep’s been mentioned before, but it’s only the 2nd week of school and we are soooooooo tired! We miss sleep so much, it deserves that second entry.
6. CHRISTMAS GAINZ
What we found truly enjoyable in the Christmas break was walking the tightrope with the massive Christmas chibugan. Almost everyday, there was a family reunion where we could eat all we could for free and we didn’t hold back. Then we remembered that we had to take a family Christmas photo and we didn’t wanna look like we ate two of our siblings! We had to find the perfect way to balance my immense food intake and my health. Thankfully, the Christmas break gifted me with plenty of time. We managed to hit the gym frequently enough to put all the calories to use, reduce the risk of a Santa Claus belly, and achieve new personal records that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger proud. We could say that we were exercising to eat, while at the same time eating to exercise; an enjoyable pattern, we might add. This semester, we’re definitely gonna miss all the free time and the Christmas food but at least we’ll be more disciplined when it comes to eating- not a bad compromise!
Our list surely can’t encompass all that we’ll miss from the break. If there’s one consolation about having school back though, is that it’s an excuse to keep seeing our friends and to even keep going out with them! Maybe it’s not so bad, or maybe it is. Share with us your own list of what you’ll miss from the break!
Written by: Ginger Cuan, Rafael Dela Torre, Daniel Menil and Paolo Bisuna
Header by: Gaby Silao
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