As you prepare for Christmas Break, you may have visions of quality family time, catching up with High School friends, Netflix binging and eating all your favorite foods.  Unfortunately, the reality of our breaks does not always match up with our expectations.  So, we want to give you some tips for making the most of your Christmas break (or any extended break, really).

You are not alone – Sometimes we feel like we are the only one whose Christmas break isn’t everything they hoped it would be.  Going home isn’t great for a lot of people for all kinds of reasons.  Don’t feel bad or be surprised if your going home experience isn’t 100% positive.

Get an “Elevator Speech” – For those who haven’t taken Speech class or aren’t Marketing majors, an Elevator Speech is a brief speech that gets across your main ideas in the time it would take to ride an elevator with someone – generally 20-60 seconds.  Everyone and their grandma (yours, too!) is going to ask you how college is going – have something to say!  Some people will want the 30-second version  and some (probably your grandma and Great Aunt Sally) could talk all day. Think about how you can sum up your experience in 30 seconds – “It was tough at first, but it ended up going really well” – and how you can talk for a couple of minutes.  What were your favorite classes, how did you like living on campus, how do you feel about Nashville.  And, don’t feel like you need to tell EVERYTHING about your experience and how you have changed – those are your stories to choose with whom and when to share.

Live into the person you are now, don’t revert to your high school self – When you go home, it will be so easy to fall back into the habits of high school you.  Don’t do it – it’s a trap!!  Instead, do your own laundry, or if your mom insists on doing it bring it the laundry room.   Clean up after yourself – don’t leave your dirty dishes on the counter waiting for someone else to load them into the dishwasher or leave your things scattered throughout the house and pick up your bedroom!  Also, we know that you haven’t had a curfew in college, but don’t stay out until all hours of the night when you get home.  Have a conversation with your parents early on break to find out their expectations and set some ground rules.  Not acting like your high school self will be a reminder to your parents that you are not a kid anymore and they don’t need to treat you that way.

Try to find some routine – It may sound awesome to have a month of unstructured time sleeping as much as you want, binging Disney+ and eating your favorite foods.  But, after a week of that it may get a bit old.  Think about a routine you might want to set for yourself – waking up by a certain time, getting out of the house, spending time with friends, eating the occasional healthy meal.  It may seem strange, but you’ll thank yourself by the end of break.

Things change… and that’s okay – Believe it or not your family has a life without you.  They have new routines, new ways of relating to each other and to you.  Do not be alarmed!  They still love you, but you may need to figure out how to be together.  Not only will your family have changed,

but your friends have changed, too.  It’s a natural part of growing up and going to college.  But remember that just because you’ve changed doesn’t mean you can’t be friends or won’t still have a great time together.

And in case you didn’t know it, you’ve changed, too.  You have had new experiences, you’ve learned new things, you might even think and believe differently than you did when you left for college.  It doesn’t mean something is wrong with you or with them – change happens.

Don’t fall into the comparison trap – It will be so easy to compare your college experience with your friends’ experiences and feel like yours isn’t good enough.  Feeling like this can make you wonder if you made the wrong decision coming to Belmont or that you’re doing something wrong.  Different colleges give students different experience.  Instead of wondering what you’ve done wrong, make a list of all the things you have loved about your Belmont experience and give thanks that you’ve survived another semester of college!

 

Heather Daugherty, University Minister

 

Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash

Photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash