Netflix, sleeping in… and contemplation?

 The importance of reflection during winter break  

My chest heaves up and down, and with each deep inhalation, I slowly manage to catch my breath. I can feel my shirt sticking to me with sweat, and though my body aches, I can’t help but feel something stirring—pride. Oh boy, I’m starting to get emotional, and the gym is certainly not the best place to shed a tear. Every time I come home to Calgary and head to Repsol Sport Centre, I find myself thinking about the many ways in which I have grown stronger, both physically and mentally, since my last visit. As a brief pause from a heavy workload, winter break is a time that allows for exactly these sorts of reflections. 

While reflecting is one possible outcome of winter break, it can really be whatever you make of it. If you’ve been craving two weeks of uninterrupted Netflix binging and hanging out with friends, then binge away! Yet, if you want it to be, this pause between semesters is also a perfect time for contemplation. With the school year’s first four months of academic intensity in the rearview mirror, it can be worthwhile to ask ourselves what accomplishments we can be proud of. In what ways did you challenge yourself? If you feel like you didn’t challenge yourself, how come? These questions can lead us to some uncomfortable places, and I can’t blame anyone who would rather just enjoy the relaxation that the break has to offer. That being said, in asking these questions, I managed to reorient myself for the coming semester, as well as realize something that should be obvious but isn’t always: the success of a semester never comes down to just grades. 

 If you earned straight As, then congrats! But this scenario won’t stop me from suggesting that any brainiacs out there should not jump to label their entire semester a grand success after checking ACORN (if grades ever actually get uploaded, that is). Without diminishing the well-earned pride of anyone whose grades reflect their hard work, I challenge those of this category to think about their semester through the lens of personal accomplishment, and not solely academics. For better or for worse, this may readjust the satisfaction a person feels towards their semester, but it is guaranteed to enable legitimate reflection and growth. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything bad coming from that.  

On the flip side, it is all too easy to look at a low mark on ACORN and think, “Gee, this semester really didn’t go that well.” To anyone who despairs, I urge you to dig deeper! The “success” of a semester also includes the ways in which you grew as an individual. While personal development cannot be quantified onto a transcript, it arguably will carry a person just as far as grades can, if not further. On top of that, individual growth feels pretty darn good too. While lower-than-expected grades are understandably upsetting, it’s just not worth it to give into the ease with which defeat can be donned, like a big, ugly sweater. Instead, think a little harder about the other parts of your semester you feel good about. I would bet anyone that if they think long enough about it, there were good bits mixed in with the rest of the fall semester, even if they aren’t so obvious at first. 

This is a lot to think about over our short winter break, but such clear midway points conducive to reflection don’t come around all too often. To all those who profited from their academic hiatus by considering first semester, I hope you got something useful out of your thoughts. And to those who focused on simply enjoying the break (which was certainly well-deserved), I encourage you to begin considering the struggles and triumphs of the last four months. Because if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that it is never too late for some good ol’ meditation and personal growth. In fact, I am confident that if we learn to exercise self-trust just a little bit more, we can pleasantly surprise ourselves with the amount of growing we are actually capable of.