As the holiday season begins and finals follow, the struggle to balance the two starts becoming more noticeable. The holiday season is one of the most important times for school and the busiest for social and family events. Being able to balance the two in a healthy and productive way can be extremely beneficial to a person’s health and can ensure that the holiday season is able to be a cheery one.

The holiday season is a time that people want to spend at home with family and friends, relaxing and enjoying the festive food and activities. Unfortunately, school can get in the way of this. Finals begin in early December, right as the holiday season is at its peak, with Christmas and Hanukkah around the corner, so often, people are either disconnected from the holidays or from school.

Freshman Liz Brodeur expressed her opinions on school with the holidays and the scheduling of finals, “I feel more excited about the holidays during school which makes it harder for me to focus. I also think it’s good that finals are before then so we don’t have to worry about them during Christmas and New Years”.

With extra studying and homework on the weekends due to finals, keeping motivation can be a struggle. Although it is clear that school should be the priority for all, pressure to blow things off and participate in other more enjoyable events can make the balance a bit more complicated.

Here at NDB, our counselors and teachers try to keep the school load as low as possible during this time of year to be more considerate, but even with the support our students get, the holiday season can still be a struggle.

School is priority no matter what is going on but the distractions can be quite unhelpful. Things like using a planner, and scheduling specific time for work are things that can help with getting through finals and homework during this season. It is always important to keep both the academic and social parts of the season in mind, and be sure to balance them to avoid burning out.