You chugged that Starbucks, you read more CAS standards and crammed more theories into your brain than you thought even existed (for the record, there’s SO many more), and you participated in more group projects than you EVER would have imagined grad school would entail. After all that, you finished ONE semester in graduate school. For some of you, it might be your very first semester, but regardless of wherever you are in your journey towards achieving that Masters Degree, we’ve reached that time of the year when many people are thinking “all that work was only for ONE semester?” To those people, I’d like to remind you how very short your graduate career is. For many of you, this experience will only last two years, so all the work that went into finishing that one semester is one quarter of your Masters Degree.

Just recently I received news that my program proposal for SEAHO (Southeast Association of Housing Officers) was accepted, and I will be presenting on making the most of the Grad/Advisor relationship in February. As I sat down to put the finishing touches on my presentation, I thought about how easy it is to allow your graduate experience to fly by without even taking real notice of it. As a student, graduate school is the opportunity to learn, grow, make some mistakes, gain experience, make more mistakes, and figure out what our next step is. So I want to take a moment to remind everyone: as this semester comes to an end, so does a quarter of your graduate school experience. What are you going to do with the rest of your time in this program?

I realize that some of us are still cramming for finals, and others are completely drained from the end of the semester, so I’d like to offer six suggestions for how to recuperate over the winter break:

  1. Take some time to yourself – read a book just for fun, see a movie by yourself, take a walk, or just take some time to be alone with your thoughts

  2. Ignore your e-mail – you are a student and you deserve a break too. For once, turn your e-mail off on your phone!

  3. Catch up with the friends/family you ignored during the end of the semester – they love you and are remarkably understanding of your academic endeavors. Take some time to make it up to them!

  4. Do something active – Your eyes are sore from all that late night reading. Give your brain a break and stretch out those neglected muscles! Might I suggest ice skating on Sunday, December, 15 (shameless plug for the mentor/mentee outing!)

  5. Get ready for next semester – Get your books, communicate with your professors, and just generally get mentally prepared to rock out Spring semester!

  6. Make a list of what you want to accomplish for the rest of your graduate career – Like I said… we tend to forget how very short our graduate program is – so don’t miss out on great opportunities. Make a list of all the experiences you want from your graduate program and figure out how you plan on accomplishing those with the rest of your time.