These first two days of the second semester have really made me appreciate having finals before winter break.

I had two weeks to forget unimportant things, and now I won't have to spend time relearning them. I will also remain guilt-free about not studying during the break.

At first I was really opposed to the idea. Last year, I liked using winter break to get rid of stress and catch up on sleep. It was also nice to have the winter surprise party as the last part of school before break. So what if I forgot stuff over those two long weeks of break? By the end of December I had already forgotten what I learned in September and October. What was the harm of another two weeks?

Plus, if students are really ambitious about their finals, they can take the time to study during winter break. People can relearn things in a relaxed manner instead of having to manage time between daily homework and other school activities.

Another problem this year was all the tests just a week before our finals. This was a major contributor to my stress level at the time. The amount of studying I had to do was overwhelming, and it seemed that I would not only fail my finals, but I would fail my other tests too.

But then I realized that when I whined about the new scheduling, I was really romanticizing last year’s afterbreak finals. I was forgetting how stressed I had been, and how annoyed I was at forgetting a lot of stuff during winter break, since I had been too lazy to pick up any of my textbooks or notebooks. At least this year I hadn’t abandoned my backpack and its contents for two weeks.

Also, because the semester ended in the middle of January last year, students had to endure the weird feeling of going home Friday afternoon and coming back on Monday morning with a new schedule and new classes.

So, after thinking about this subject during my 18-hour car ride to Colorado (which was more like 20 hours due to the bad weather), I concluded that I was really lucky to have a school that was smart enough to schedule finals before winter break, despite my numerous nightmares about all the tests I had to take.

I feel even luckier when I talk to my friends from other schools who are freaking out about their own finals, which are in a week. People constantly tell me how unlucky I am that I attend Uni because of the homework load, but they don't say that when I tell them that I've already taken my finals. For once, it seems that they are jealous of me for going to Uni.