In the name of everything that's holy...give us a fall break!

So I’m sick of school. Welcome to the club right? I’m sick of homework and classes and walking what feels like 500 miles to class in 30 degree weather. I’m tired. I’m so tired of school that I sleep all the time. As I sit here and contemplate school, I have started to believe that all of this tiredness and sickness stem from one thing. A lack of a fall break. Fall break. Ahhh. Just thinking of those two words together makes me smile with pleasure, eliciting feelings of relaxation and Zen. And while I realize that now we are only about a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, the idea of a fall break a couple of weeks ago still seems appealing. Is it so much to ask for the university to take a simple fall break? It might be different if fall break was simply a fictional term, something created in the mind of a crazed, delusional student one day; however, fall break is a reality for many schools around the country. For example, a close friend of mine who attends Beloit College had his fall break October 14-20. John Hopkins University also had a fall break on October 17. When thinking back to October 12th ish, my entire body tenses with stress. Obviously other universities are doing it, why can’t Madison? I think that, while it may not alleviate all of the stress now, it certainly would have give us a mental break from school in order for us to reorient ourselves at that time. Plus, I probably would not be as cranky now about school and studying. Thanksgiving is simply too long to wait for a break from school. Psychology studies have proven that the most effective way to study is not to cram, but to study in 20 minute increments. Apparently after 20 minutes, we cease to remember things. Obviously if we spend an extended period of time at school without a break, we too will cease to remember things, rendering our education worthless. When discussing this issue with various peers last week, I realized that many students were overly anxious to get out of Madison, seeking any means to leave. For example, my roommate booked an extremely expensive ticket to Boston last minute this weekend in her desperation to leave. Her exact words were “If I don’t get out of this place this weekend I will seriously injure something.” I hate to think that we must reach this point of desperation and edginess (and pure violence, at least in the case of my roommate). A couple days during the middle of October would certainly help ease some of that pent up tension. It seems simple enough in concept especially considering that Madison is not exactly a slacker school. So I propose a petition to the University of Wisconsin – Madison for a fall break in mid-October. A fall break in the name of health, mental, physical, and emotional. It’s really a health hazard to attend school for so long without a break. Who’s with me?!