For first-year undergraduate students, Thanksgiving and winter break are a welcome respite and opportunity to quench homesickness. However, with the nature of the quarter system, the two nearly back-to-back breaks pose the difficult task of traveling and justifying associated costs, along with returning from a brief break to take finals. 

Before Thanksgiving break, students may be finishing up midterms and feeling the exhaustion of digesting nine weeks of content, only to return to prepare for exams and final papers. 

Though the short break could be a moment to breathe, it may also feel like whiplash. For Mira Martin, a third-year civil and environmental engineering major, the structure of the quarter system and fall breaks is something she finds overwhelming. 

“This quarter my classes are brutal and the amount of content that we’re trying to cover right before finals after having this [Thanksgiving] break is so difficult,” Martin said. 

Being on a quarter system can pose challenges; the pace is quicker and more content is covered in a shorter time span. Fall quarter, in particular, has a structure that may feel disorienting due to the scheduled Thanksgiving break. It’s essentially two weeks of stress sandwiched between two holidays full of rest. 

“I felt rushed and I think it would be a lot better if we didn’t have class at all the week of Thanksgiving,” Julia Pilch, a first-year forensic psychology major, said. 

For out-of-state students, who make up 54% of the first-year undergraduate student body, the end of the fall quarter could be especially overwhelming. Pilch, being from Los Angeles, was posed with a less-than-ideal back-and-forth travel itinerary.

Pilch said that she and her parents had been going back and forth about whether or not she should go home for Thanksgiving. Unsure of whether it would be worth paying for multiple flights, unique circumstances ultimately made the decision for Pilch to travel home for the holiday.

“My sister is going to be moving out of the country next year, so this is kind of our last Thanksgiving that we’re going [to] have altogether as a family for a while,” Pilch said.

Pilch and her family recognized that the opportunity for them all to spend the holidays together is going to be temporarily limited in the future, making it important for her to travel back home for Thanksgiving weekend.

For other students, the simple fact that travel tickets are more expensive around the holidays is what prevents them from being able to return home for the brief Thanksgiving break. 

Mattea Skeen, a first-year communication and media student from Oahu, had initially expected to stay on campus for Thanksgiving. To Skeen’s luck though, a deal through Alaska Airlines made it possible to visit her family during the break, a visit she described as “much-needed.” 

Yet, Skeen did note that some of her other friends from Hawaii at Seattle U ended up having to stay in Seattle for the weekend. But instead of feeling down about it, a bunch of them got together and spent the holiday together. 

“I think it’s honestly not too big of a deal not being able to go home for Thanksgiving. I think just as a first year, it’s a little rough cause then it’s like your first time not being home for the holidays but I don’t think it would make too much of a difference,” Skeen said.

Pilch and Skeen both anticipate that as they get more accustomed to college life, they will likely become more comfortable with the notion of not being able to return home for every holiday.

Martin has had this experience, except, unlike Pilch and Skeen, she had spent her Thanksgiving during her first year on campus. 

“Freshman year I was pretty disappointed about it. It’s hard to not be surrounded by family, but through the years, like this year, I had a really great Thanksgiving with my people here,” Martin said. 

Martin also added that when she does visit home for the longer breaks it’s always exciting to catch up, describing the feeling as being in a “guest star episode” when she’s home.

The end of fall quarter is an opportunity to appreciate both new and old homes. However, the structure of holiday breaks makes travel difficult, particularly for out-of-state students. The final weeks of the fall are emotionally and academically rigorous as the quarter’s end gives time for reflection.