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spotted brown butterfly on a pink flower
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The Five Stages of Grief after Winter Break

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Vanessa Lopez
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Harvard chapter.

The students of Harvard are back in their dorm rooms and the dining halls are no longer empty. Spring semester has officially started, but my mind is still basking in the Texas sunshine, unwilling to snap back to reality and face the wind and snow outside my window. If you’re anything like me, then you must also think that winter break was the greatest thing to ever happen to the educational system since tater tots. I spent 5 weeks in pure bliss with no Organic Chemistry to fill my mind and minimal responsibility. My companions (besides my family) included the couch in my living room, the microwave and the one friend I still had back home to binge watch Harry Potter and Gilmore Girls with. To a 20-year-old that just ended a highly stressful semester, my winter break was the paradise I longed for and the idea of returning to school was not pleasant.

 

Dramatics aside, there is always a brief period of grief after winter break ends and a new semester begins. While I am always excited to get back to the books (getting that Harvard education woop woop!), I am sad to see my palm trees fade into the distance and trade in my sandals for snow boots. Here are the five stages of grief post-winter break that one might experience before the start of the spring semester:

 

  1. Denial

There’s a blizzard outside and the sun and flowers are nowhere to be found, how could you say that winter break is over??? This is called the spring semester for a reason…

 

2. Anger

 

I know my laptop never did anything to me, but seeing my new schedule just set me off.

 

3. Confusion

 

*looks at the first lecture slides for Chem 27* What is this? What happened to arrow pushing? Why am I seeing 3D models of protein structures? I thought my B+ in organic chemistry last semester meant that I was good for this semester! WHAT IS THIS?

 

4. Sadness

 

Another semester, another long haul filled with anxiety and pressure. Let’s try and get the number of times I cry myself to sleep down this time.

 

5. Acceptance… sort of

 

 

College is a time of deep exploration of the mind and making connections and gaining all of this knowledge that Harvard has to throw at me! I’m pumped and ready, bring on 2017! How many weeks until spring break?

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Vanessa is a sophomore at Harvard studying Human Developmental and Regnerative Biology with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. She is originally from South Texas and is very involved with the Latinx community at Harvard as well as Harvard's Science Club for Girls. When not in a lab or working as a tour guide, Vanessa likes to spend her free time in thrift stores or playing Pokemon Go shamelessly.