Students checked out during two weeks between breaks

By Jolie Shultz
Staff Writer

Although Hutchinson Community College’s fall semester still has another week left in its term, many students seem to have checked out when Thanksgiving break hit.

Brynn Hawbaker, a Salina freshman, is one of these students.

“I think it’s dumb,” Hawbaker said. “I don’t want to go on break and be excited that I don’t have school, then have to come back for only two more weeks.”

HutchCC’s winter break starts on Dec. 8, which is just a few days over two weeks after the campus’s Thanksgiving break. Most students taking in-person classes will be finished with final exams by Wednesday.

Hawbaker said she believes that these two weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break cause an unnecessary amount of problems for students.

“It’s so stressful. I was thinking about it over Thanksgiving break, like I’m supposed to be on break, I shouldn’t be stressing about school,” Hawbaker said.

Some students may even feel like they aren’t able to take full advantage of their break.

“It’s just a lot, it feels like,” Nickerson sophomore Zoe Coonce said. “You get to go on break, but right after are finals. I worried about studying for my finals instead of fully being present with my family.”

Hawbaker shares these same sentiments.

“There’s so many things that I probably should’ve done over break but I didn’t, cause I’m supposed to be on break. But I have so much homework and so many tests packed into these two weeks that I wanna cry. So bad,” Hawbaker said.

When discussing possible solutions to ease the discontent that is caused by these seemingly useless two weeks, different ideas were thrown around.

“I would’ve rather gone everyday besides Thanksgiving and then just gotten out three days sooner so I wouldn’t have to go next week,” Coonce said.

Carly Bontrager, a sophomore from Nickerson, agreed.

“It’s so pointless. I just want to be able to extend my Thanksgiving until winter break,” Bontrager said. “We could make these two weeks up by starting earlier, which I honestly wouldn’t mind.”

With Thanksgiving break and winter break being split up with finals prep and finals, some students feel as though those two weeks are isolated.

“It’s kind of strange picking up after you go on break. It’s almost like we get to start with a blank slate but you’re also expected to know exactly what was previously written on that slate.” Bontrager said.

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