You Made It to Winter Break. What Now?

Fall semesters are always a rush, and finally reaching the finish line can feel like the greatest accomplishment in the world. Winter break is finally a time to slow down, rest, and relax after fourteen long weeks of juggling everything college life throws at you.

But what do you do with all your new free time?

1. Self care

After a busy semester it’s always a good idea to spend some time taking care of yourself! Take some time to do some skincare, move your body, eat your favorite meals, and lay around doing nothing!

My favorite winter break self care activities have been going on walks in the afternoon and taking time to make bigger meals that I didn’t really have the time or appetite for during the semester.

2. Spend time with family

If you’re anything like me, you probably missed your family a lot while you were at school, and your family probably missed you! Winter break is a really good time to catch up on family connection before you head out again for Spring semester.

This time of year looks different for my family because of the pandemic, but between game nights over Zoom and lots of facetime calls we’ve still been finding lots of fun ways to connect.

3. Apply to summer opportunities

Lots of deadlines for summer opportunities like study abroad, internships, research, fellowships, jobs, and more happen over winter break. It can be a lot easier to focus on filling out applications when you don’t have much on your plate over winter break.

You can check out Furman’s study away office website for a listing of programs you can apply for, as well as the internship database, or Malone Center for Career Engagement if you’re looking for a internship or job. If you’re dreaming about a summer on campus or a summer in another city, Furman can certainly help connect you to a cool opportunity that meets your interests.

And you don’t need to be worried about costs because the Furman Advantage will help you get paid for an internship or research or grant a scholarship for study away that will make it accessible and affordable.

4. Apply to scholarships

Similarly to summer opportunities, lots of deadlines for scholarships happen over winter break. It can be a good time to search for easy-application scholarships to help go towards your education costs.

There are lots of scholarships specifically for undergraduates and lots of scholarships for specific majors, so you shouldn’t have too hard of a time finding any!

5. Connect with old friends and make new ones

Winter break is the perfect time to reconnect with hometown friends who you might’ve fallen a bit distant from while at school. Reconnecting doesn’t have to mean physically meeting up (we are still in a pandemic after all!), it can look like facetiming, writing letters, hosting a Netflix party, and so much more!

Similarly, the break is a good time to connect with new friends– maybe people you didn’t get to hang out with as much as you wanted during the semester. I’ve made a couple new friends from posting on my social media to ask if anyone would be interested in a winter break pen pal. You’d be surprised how many people love writing letters and getting to know each other!

However you decide to connect, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and try to find ways to have a good time!

-Asha