I’m not talking about the Winter Solstice Dec. 22, which is technically the shortest day of sunlight all year. I’m talking about the next 15 days, between today and that last final on Dec. 16.

We will all have written (what feels like) endless papers, scribbled through packs of note cards and highlighted until the ink ran dry, before being greeted by freshly baked cookies, straight-out-of-the-dryer bedding and family pets when we walk in the door for winter break.

We just got through Thanksgiving break, which always feels like the biggest tease. The countdown is legitimate, and generally the workload sent home with us resembles a break, but with classes the Monday after, returning to campus feels like going to the dentist.

But here we are, back on campus for three weeks with the shortest, longest days of the semester ahead. We’ve been counting down to since the week before Thanksgiving.

Now we’re back and compiling our to-do lists, nailing down co-ops and getting into the holiday spirit.
Holiday shopping lists are to-do lists in themselves, tacked onto the end of what needs to be finished by the last day of class, prior to endless studying. The juggle becomes a game and sleep goes out the window.

We want to squeeze in one last dinner with everyone before that three-week hiatus, spent in our warm, cozy beds at home, catching up on much needed shut-eye.

Our days are packed with everything from 8 a.m.’s to our last student group meetings with elections for next semester’s executive board. Tight schedules keep us moving, pushing one busy, long day into the next.

Those on co-op have a bit longer until break, but the same sort of feelings. They are just as burned out as those in class, if not more.

In the midst of the craze, at some point, I stop dead in my tracks and wonder how I made it through yet another semester that was crazier then the previous. Then I swear to not to do this again next semester.

Somehow, this fall, I’ve balanced a full class load, my roles at The News, an internship off campus and a decent social life. How? I have no idea and I’m already pleading with myself for my final semester at Northeastern next fall to not be this hectic. I’ll lose, just watch.
With next December’s graduation beginning to loom, I realize this is technically my second-to-last semester, since this Spring will be spent on co-op.

It’s just a matter of months before this same countdown will be the end of my Northeastern career and entrance into the “real world” with the other December graduates.

It’s these days that I, and those in similar shoes, need to grasp on to and enjoy. If we think these 15 days are going to be the shortest, longest, busiest days, finding adjectives for the same stretch next year is seemingly impossible.

In between scribbles and lines of text, it’ll be these days we will look back on and remember burning the midnight oil and the choices we made to get work done – whether it was a drink at Conor’s at 9 p.m. for incentive or pulling our hair together at Club Snell.

It’s these days, as busy as they are, that those close to graduation, and even freshmen, should cherish.

“Remember when we had two papers due the next day, but we went to see the carolers and the lights anyway?”

“What about the ugly sweater party or friends’ holiday card photo shoot that lasted way too long?”

Live off the craze, make a new memory as goofy as possible because you will remember that and not the Software and Statistics final at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

– Sarah Moomaw can be reached at [email protected].