[ferreinm]

The How To: Killing Time When You Have Lots of it
BY NICOLE FERREIRA, MACINSIDERS

With the change of the weather comes a new season—the season of giving that is! As we watch our Visa bills pile up, let’s take a moment to reflect. We now have at least two weeks of nothingness. Freedom from school and stress, finally! But rather than solely focusing the next few days on tons of shopping (since there wasn’t enough time with all of the exams we’ve had) you may consider other activities that won’t lead you towards debt.

Volunteering! It’s the giving season so why not give some of your time to help those in need. Come on, look at how fortunate we are! We can afford to pay a few grand to further our education while some people have difficulty finding enough money for food. So whether you help out at a soup kitchen or a youth centre there are a lot of opportunities to be found this holiday season! You’d be spending your valuable time helping others and you’d feel great at the end of the day knowing the impact you’ve in another person’s life.

Watch holiday specials! Frosty the Snowman is my favourite! Or how about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Christopher the Christmas Tree, the Charlie Brown Christmas episode! Man, we had some pretty awesome holiday specials growing up. Find out when these specials come on and watch them for hours. They’re enjoyable and get you all giddy. You get to re-live your childhood for a couple of hours which is a great way to get your mind off the eventual return to school.

Start job hunting early! You can update your resume before school gets hectic. Plus, you’ll be ahead of the others who’ll start looking for jobs in February. With so many people losing jobs right now the job search has become a lot more difficult. It may be best to start now rather than regretting it later. Besides it’s always a good idea to keep your resume up to date. Once you get back to school you can head over to Career Services and have your resume critiqued or ask questions to further your chance of summer employment.

Go skating! There are usually a couple of outdoor rinks you can skate on or you can go to an indoor one for only $5. Skating is tons of fun even if you’ve never done it before. Sure you might fall a couple of times but hey you’ll always get back up. If skating isn’t your thing you can go skiing, tobogganing or snowboarding. There are so many winter sports that you can get involved in.

Make a list of things you’ve always wanted to do and then start doing it. You finally have time to donate blood for your first time, or get that G1 you were supposed to get way back when you were 16. So start off small with a couple of things you want to achieve and then start achieving it. Your break won’t be a waste of time and you’ll feel like you’re starting to live a little bit more. Fifteen years of school can sometimes make you forget about how important it is to live in life rather than working so hard all of the time. So get out there and explore new things!

Spend some time with your family. Oh come on, you know you don’t see them that often. You’re either living in a different city and visit once a month or you’re too busy studying all of the time to even notice when they come home from work. Your family has been there for you through the good and the bad. After University is complete, they will still be there supporting and loving you. Appreciate what they have done for you. Spend quality time with them whether it’s talking over a coffee or playing a game of Scrabble, they’ll definitely be thankful for it. You’ll only be with them for another two weeks and then poof, back to school you go!

Go out with your friends. Yeah, this one seems kind of obvious but I guess I’ll throw it out there. There are so many things you can do that are definitely affordable. Besides how often do you actually see your friends from your hometown? Be honest. They matter too. They’ve been busy, you’ve been busy but now it’s time to catch up. Go out for a coffee and talk about what they’ve been doing for the past four months. Eventually, you’ll end up chatting up a storm about high school and what fools you were. Good times. Good times.

Catch up on your readings. Some of us might actually have full year courses and we might have slacked off a bit during it. If you get bored you can pick up your textbook and read a couple of pages just to catch up or even get ahead of the class. It’ll even allow you to concentrate on your other classes once you get back. Plus, it’s one less thing to read. Yay!

Sleep. When all else fails catch up on some sleep. Get your full 8, 9 or even 10 hours of it. You’ll need it after all of those all nighter studying nights. Plus, once you get back to Mac you won’t be doing a lot of it anymore. So get some sleep now so that you’re energized and ready to go on January 5th.

Christmas season is over though ... (finally!)

less than 6 days left! gah!

Great ideas Nicole, especially the tip about job hunting. Need to start NOW before the big rush. Also, those applying to post-grad colleges - the deadline is Feb 1st!!!

Here was my list of things that i wanted to do.

Things to do this Holidays

1) P90X
2) Bio and Chem Review
3) Quantum Physics
4) Calculus Review
5) Learning to Cook + Laundry + Grocery Shopping
6) Finish Bio News
7) Join rivergrove community centre -------> Workout
8) Chem 13 news contest
9) Watch scary movies
10) Finish chemistry Lab
11) Train yourself to Become The Batman.

Originally Posted by Chad

less than 6 days left! gah!

Great ideas Nicole, especially the tip about job hunting. Need to start NOW before the big rush. Also, those applying to post-grad colleges - the deadline is Feb 1st!!!

Some actually have a deadline as early as January 7th...

Originally Posted by Chad

less than 6 days left! gah!

Also, those applying to post-grad colleges - the deadline is Feb 1st!!!

really? I applied to a post grad at college and they said I would find out if I was accepted on February 1st. I still have to mail out my cover letter and such. University applications are so much easier than college/

Originally Posted by ferreinm

really? I applied to a post grad at college and they said I would find out if I was accepted on February 1st. I still have to mail out my cover letter and such. University applications are so much easier than college/

Undergrad applications are easy.

Any post-grad application requires a lot of thought and time.