Countdown to Christmas

Well it’s officially the Christmas holidays- hooray! That being said, I haven’t managed to get home yet because I’m staying an extra week to get an essay done before I give up for Christmas. It’s feeling pretty bleak at the moment because I’m in my student house alone and am battling with a constant fear that something’s going to get me in the night, but there are also some perks to still being here. The university facilities are still available, so I can utilise the library heating and it’s a lot quieter there now, there’s no queue for Starbucks in the union so I can take my fill of festive hot chocolates (although my bank balance won’t thank me for that), and whatever books are left in the library probably aren’t going to disappear because most people have gone home. Plus, it means that when I get home I can really relax. I always find it quite hard to balance work at Christmas because I get swept up in a whirl of family commitments, over-eating, and seeing friends, so hopefully by staying another week I’ll do some damage control.

Before my housemates went home we put together a Christmas dinner (although, confession: I was mostly on decoration making and washing up duty as I am an appalling cook), which is something we’d talked about in second year but never got round to. It involved taking time out and I felt a bit guilty because there’s so much I still need to get done, but it was so worth it. And I guess that’s what I want to say- with deadlines and exams looming in January, it can be hard to let go of the feeling that you should be doing work, whenever you let yourself have some time off over these holidays. But the time off is also a crucial part of getting work done because it helps you replenish your energy levels. So I hope that these Christmas holidays you let yourself enjoy some down time, guilt free. I know I can’t wait to get home and curl up with my dogs, having packed my books away for a couple of weeks. So happy nearly Christmas everyone!