With 14 weeks of instruction in the fall semester, fall break is exactly the halfway mark. The same happens with spring break in March–seven weeks of class and then some time off. In the fall there’s Thanksgiving break that adds some extra recuperation time, but otherwise, we’re grinding for a month and a half straight before we get any semblance of a break. I had always wondered if the mass feeling of being burnt out was caused by everyone knowing break is so close or if it was because seven weeks was just the amount of time it took to burn out a Bucknell student. I always wanted to experiment, but I couldn’t change the academic calendar just to know how the date of break impacts my motivation. But then I went abroad.

Across the world, and even within the United States, there are different approaches to academic calendars. We may think of year-round schools or schools that are on the quarter system, but generally, their breaks are still after about seven weeks of class. When I studied abroad, my breaks were not based on time in class, but based on religious holidays. That meant I had class for 10 weeks before break. And the burnt-out feeling still crept in at seven weeks, but I should’ve seen this coming.

We take different classes with different amounts of work at different times of year throughout our Bucknell education. We may be in a class with three exams or 12 quizzes. It doesn’t matter. We see people get tired right before fall break anyway. Whether it be essays, projects or exams, we are tired. We may have too much reading or too many problem sets, but either way, we are in need of a break. The work may not always be pushing us to our limits, but after seven weeks of thinking academically, we may be approaching our limits and need a chance to step back for a little. 

We need to make sure we are taking care of ourselves and not pushing ourselves to the breaking point when it comes to doing work. Bucknell has figured out over the years when to start class and when to have a break to keep us in this sweet spot, but some of this comes down to us as well. Making sure we are using fall break as a real break when possible and giving ourselves pockets of rest throughout the semester as well is really important. We can’t always count on calendars to have our best interests at heart so learning when to take a break for ourselves will make all the difference throughout our lives.