Have a Stress-Free Thanksgiving

It’s that time of year again!  The multicolored leaves are covering the ground, the temperature is dropping, and the stress is increasing?  Wait, what?  That’s right, the holidays are coming up and with them are bushels of stress.  When I think of the holidays, the nearest being Thanksgiving, I think of a happy time where I get a nice break from school, get to see my extended family, and just relax in my cozy home.  However, as the 22^nd of this November approaches, I’m not rejoicing, in fact I’m stressing and I’m not alone.  Not only am I nervous about Thanksgiving, but my parents are too, and even my dog!  Everyone has a reason to have some anxious with this up-and-coming holiday, but I have a few tips to help prevent this stress specifically for the students.

Students, such as myself, are consistently faced with a large amount of work to be done, whether it is homework or college apps, etc.  With so much to do, we try to push it off to avoid all the stress, we procrastinate, but that really isn’t helping our stress levels in the long run.  It just pushes off the stress and crams it into a short time period, which is why Thanksgiving poses a problem.  To many teachers (or according to angered students), breaks mean that the same about of work that would be done during a normal school day, should be given for students to do at home, in addition to typical homework, and throw in a few projects.  Well if the work given for each class is truly the equivalent to a school day, then where is the logic to pushing all the work off until Sunday?  Three school days cannot be pushed into one, and if tried to be, then prepare yourself for an abundance of stress.  My experience has taught my one valuable lesson about procrastination, don’t do it.  Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, however, there are a couple methods of dealing with it that also specifically pertain to Thanksgiving.  The first is to take advantage of the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Treat it like a normal weekend and not as a carefree, “oh there’s barely any school next week I’ll just do everything over Thanksgiving”.  Don’t use up all your precious relaxation time over that weekend, but rather do efficient work, which brings me my next point, which is to take preemptive measures. 

One of the most satisfying feeling I feel is when I know I have a ton of work to do, but then remember that I have already done more than half of it.  No matter the class, it is advantageous to try to do the assignment as soon as possible.  Convince yourself that a certain assignment is due the last day of school before the break; really believe that that is when it is due.  In my personal opinion, try to stress, a moderate amount, about making sure you get it done on that deadline you made.  This little stress you just gave to yourself gets completely wiped out during Thanksgiving when you can watch some football on the couch or sleep in three more hours.  This method is what I call artificial stress and it has that name for two reasons, the first being that you have caused stress upon yourself that was unnatural and completely your doing.  The second reason for that name, however, is that the stress is artificial, fake.  It does not exist.  It is quite a weird mind trick where you convince yourself you are stressed while being fully aware you aren’t because you have no reason to be, yet as weird as it may sound, it works beautifully.  In a nutshell, you are lying to yourself in order to greatly reward yourself.

For the adults out there, I understand that you may be experiencing just as much if not more stress than the students, so I highly recommend you read this to help manage your own holiday life. 

So as you approach your Thanksgiving holiday break keep in mind a few things: 1. Know that you will have a lot of work to do over the break, so compensate by doing some work ahead of time.  2. Don’t use the weekend before the break as your break; keep it as a regular weekend.  3. Be happy!  After all it is Thanksgiving and a break.  Enjoy the time you have with your friends and family, sleep in a few extra hours, and last but not least, enjoy some of your Mama’s homemade green bean casserole.