There's a girl in my office who just graduated from college in May of '07, so this is her first year in the real world of No Christmas Month Off. It has made me remember of some things I loved about Christmastime in college.
1. Um, having a MONTH OFF. We used to finish exams around the 9th or 10th of December, and not return from Winter Break until January 6th or something. That was so awesome.
2. Finals and Reading Week. Yeah, I know that's crazy, but I was a nerd. I liked having no classes to attend, and getting to manage my own study-time however I saw fit. I especially liked the exams that weren't "exams" so much as "homework," like the take-home tests in English. Holing up in a cozy library study carrel for hours. Pages of essay questions, and you could use your textbooks for reference. They were tiring, but not as stressful as a timed scan-tron form.
3. Being in the chorus. We always performed a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which I'd never heard of until college. (My previous Catholic choirs didn't do all the fancy Anglican stuff back at home! Such a tragedy!) It was a busy time but the biggest extra-curricular event of my year, for four years. I loved everything about it -- choir robes, candles, processions, decorating the huge church, the solemnity, readings from a King James version, professors in regalia, and of course, the music.
4. I especially loved the years when my parents came for the Festival -- and freshman year, when Maryb came with them.
5. There's one spot on campus I can remember feeling very "wintery;" a small bridge that went over the creek. Always felt quaint and silent to me.
6. Making mix tapes (TAPES!) of my dorm-mates' Christmas music. I know I had at least 2 of these and they were so fun. One has John Denver singing with the Muppets.
7. I didn't love this at the time, but I love to remember the fact that I sometimes rode home with the most RANDOM people -- people I didn't really know, but who lived near Pensacola and left a "ride-share" note on the campus post office wall. I can think of one group, especially, that was just an odd combination of kids, but turned out to be a decent road trip. I just think it's funny, spending that time with basic strangers, whom I've never seen again and didn't impact my life in any real way -- but they were part of it.
8. Ohmigosh, I nearly forgot -- Mark and Jason's annual Christmas party! Two friends of mine always put on a huge bash in their basement apartment before we left for home. One of the "features," besides Dundee's Honey Brown, was a huge sheet of white butcher paper, fastened to the dark hallway wall, where we'd draw pictures and write stupid drunk messages to each other. I mean, um, not me, Mom... I wrote stupid sober messages of course.
9. Shopping for my family at Lenox Mall, which, at the time, felt so refined and big-city. I especially loved taking the shuttle with my friend, Kim, before I had my car on campus.
10. Care packages from Mom and Dad. I think I received one with hot chocolate once. :)
11. Mistletoe. Not kissing under it, but the fact that it was growing in the trees on the quad. I'd never seen it "live" before -- didn't know where it came from, actually, 'til I saw it at college.
12. Christmas cards. Actually sending some of my own, after I got home for break, to friends from all over that I'd met at school.
13. Senior year, my roommate and I moved off-campus to an apartment of our own. We got our first Christmas tree and hosted a "trim-the-tree" party where we asked each guest to bring an ornament. Some friends made ornaments, others bought them, and I still hang some of them on our family tree, now. Fun to remember where they came from. I think new couples should do this so if you know of someone who's having an "our first Christmas" this year, pass this idea on!
Happy Thursday! Go visit other participants! thursdaythirteen.com
16 comments:
i love remembering my school daze! thanks for the stroll down memory lane! happy tt!
I went to college so far north in the US that it was almost Canada...so for me, I can't remember any of that because the brain cells I didn't kill from drinking beer were killed by the cold!
I'm currently in college and we get out Dec 15 or so and go back Jan 12 or something like that. It's like a month off and that's all, you are correct! :-) Great list!
ooh, I LOVED finals week! Because English majors had to turn in their final papers the week before and exams? We'd never heard of EXAMS. I slept in and went shopping during finals week. Best week ever!
Re: reading in February (from comment on my blog)--if I am finding time now, with four mobile children, then I can only hope that adding one immobile child will not contribute to a decrease in my reading. That's why I nurse--guaranteed sit-down time. ;-)
The movie comes out in February--hopefully before the 27th (for me anyway).
nicole - I don't know, even with guaranteed sit-down time, I remember with AJ I just never could MOTIVATE enough to read. You need to give me lessons or something. :)
I loved singing in the choir at Christmas, especially our candle lit walk singing the Hallellujah Chorus!
Having never gone to college, I can't relate but it all sounds fun!
I miss the month off too! Thanks for visiting my blog. Happy TT!
I read at the expense of just about everything. It is one of those things that keeps me sane I think. Has nothing to do with kids (unless I'm reading a parenting book, which is rare indeed), husband, or cleaning. No lessons to give--you just need to be a tad bit crazy for books maybe. If you talked to Husband he would tell you what a sickness it could be.
I also loved the seemingly endless breaks in college. And the relatively large amount of free time. I worked on-campus, so I was almost always done at 5:00 and could spend the evenings doing whatever I wanted. What a charmed life I led.
Wait, where did you go to college? Has this been covered?
Christmas month. Heh. We used to smuggle in food and, uh, DRINK into the library study carrels in our backpacks.
tessie, that would be Emory University here in Atlanta.
This was a definite stroll down memory lane for me....I remember cassette tapes, how about an 8-track?
I always took a fun class for Winter Interim, and I loved that time even more, campus so peaceful, and up here in WI it was a winter wonderland...
Great T13
I was an English major too and actually enjoyed writing papers -- as long as I didn't wait too late to start on them!
Those road trips home sound like a lot of fun!
My office in England used to close down from Christmas Eve to January 2. That was a good break!
I once ride-shared (verb tense ILLEGAL) with a guy who turned the radio on at the start of the trip and never adjusted it the whole 7-hour drive. So mostly it was loud static with snippets of voice/music darting in and out. I couldn't THINK. But I was so shy I couldn't say anything either.
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