A Letter from the Editor

Wow, another one of these already? Well, we all know that this time of year goes by particularly quickly for us. The three weeks between the end of Thanksgiving break and the beginning of Winter Break have swiftly come to a close! 

Although, perhaps it wasn’t such a blip-on-the-radar three weeks for you– perhaps these weeks, deep in the throes of the school year, were laden with assignments, tests, presentations, and endless technical difficulties. I certainly had my share of that.

But it’s over! And while we love our teachers and appreciate everything they do for us (seriously, it’s hard for us to keep morale up– their ability to be engaged with us every single day for six hours a day is difficult to comprehend), it’s nice to know the longest break of the year is finally here.

What are you going to do over the break? As for me, I am this close to finishing all of my college applications. The last one, as God as my witness, shall be submitted by Sunday night, no later. I can’t fathom quite yet what a relief it will be. It’s funny how things you thought you were only vaguely worried about can weigh so heavily on your shoulders, only to reveal the effect of their presence once they have finally been lifted. 

I hope all of you can have such a moment during this break, and I hope you can all do something actually fun. If this were all under normal circumstances, I would be driving through beautifully decorated neighborhoods and marveling at the lights with friends. Or traveling to see family in Texas. Or even watching terrible Hallmark holiday movies while playing Hallmark Christmas Movie Bingo with my best friend (Teleparty, however, will suffice).

But for our current circumstances, we need to be flexible, and that means approaching the holiday season with a different mindset than all the other holidays in years before. 

I proclaim a call to action: treat this holiday season like the very first week that Covid-19 came to our county and the lockdown order began. Sure, it was a little worrying; none of us really knew what was going on and the term “lockdown order” felt too “Cold War” to be real. 

However, I would say that time was weirdly exciting. No deaths had been reported near us, you didn’t know anyone who had gotten sick, and you were off school and work for a bit. The virus didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. In my household, we brought out board games and watched movies and I baked more than I had in a long time. It was nice– for a little bit.  

So I urge you to try to think of this Winter Break like it is that first week of Covid. Here are some ideas of what you could do: 

Roll yourself into a blanket burrito, light a fire in the fireplace, read a book or listen to an audiobook, cook for your family, become completely engrossed in a video game, start a new TV show (I got a head start on this with The Walking Dead), move your bed to the other wall in your room, collect sticks on the side of the road (for the fire), melt all of your candles into one mega candle, paint each of your toenails a different color, open up the French/Spanish/Japanese Wikipedia and impress your family with your pronunciation (even if you don’t understand what you’re saying– I do that all the time). 

Although, don’t do anything to your hair. Or, actually, go ahead; it’ll grow back eventually.

I hope you all can have some safe fun during this break.

I’ll see you soon,

Kylie Schwartz