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The post grad life

For many recent college graduates, the holidays were not how they use to be. They had to deal with the harsh reality that Christmas only allowed one day off of work, if they were lucky, not a month to six weeks of winter break like they had in college.

Reality is there is money to be made and recent college grads are lucky if they can even get one day off to celebrate on the holidays. Most have to work holidays because they are at the bottom of the totem pole at their jobs. Winter break no longer exists for most college grads.

I remember coming home from college, after what I thought was an exhausting semester, but in reality I would love to go back to even the most stressful days of college. The reason being that even though I always was doing work and stressed beyond belief the last two weeks of the semester, I knew I had a six week vacation right around the corner.

Oh how I miss that long winter break vacation. I was able to sleep in until noon and relax during the day. My senior year, I spent my winter break in a zombie-like state of mind as I watched Walking Dead on Netflix for hours and hours. I would take a few overnight shifts at work, to pay for textbooks and other college needs, and sleep during the day. I also had the freedom to make plans with friends whenever I wanted. Life was glorious and I was so relaxed after the long winter break.

Fast forward a year later. I am currently employed full time and have two jobs that I do on the side when I have time. This year my winter break consisted of having off on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Although those were my days off, I spent the day running around to all my different family members’ houses trying to see everyone in one day.

After the holiday festivities were over, I was more exhausted than I would be if I had gone to work that day. At the end of the day, I felt like I needed a day off to recover from my day off.

Looking back, I now realize why people always told me to enjoy college, because I would miss it when it was over. My typical response use to be an eye roll and say “yeah right.” Now I find myself the one preaching to enjoy college while you have it, because those people that said it to me were exactly right! Don’t get me wrong, I love working and becoming an independent young woman with each passing day. However, I would give anything to revisit how my life was on those long winter college breaks, because in the grownup world they no longer exist.

Wright is a recent Shippensburg University graduate. Her column is published each month in the Education section.

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