Coming back from an extended break can be both beneficial and a struggle for students. While the extra two weeks might have been nice for some, for others it made coming back to the school year more difficult. But even through this, students need to start the semester strong.
Shekiah Warner, senior intercultural studies major, worked a lot during her break and also spent a lot of time with her family. Even with the extended break, Warner said she found her outlook on this semester better than the previous. She said she looks forward to graduating as well as being able to make memories with friends, even if infrequent. While being online is not her preference, she holds onto the truth that this is all God’s plan.
“What I have been really clinging to is that this is still in God’s plan,” Warner said. “Because God is good, his plan for me is good. He did not come to steal, kill and destroy my dreams. The enemy might have, but God didn’t. God came to give me life and life abundantly and if doing school online is a part of his plan then here we go.”
Warner said that holding onto God’s truth is what keeps her motivated to continue strong in this semester, and can be an encouragement to those around her who might have lost motivation during the extended break.
Rachel Toenjes, senior liberal studies major said that the additional two weeks on break before coming back to school was an adjustment and made the overall break feel a lot longer than usual.
“I don’t think it will impact the rest of my semester much, but since our break was already longer than usual it felt like a lot of time to be away from school,” Toenjes said. “I was definitely ready to get back into it before the two-week extension and then even more so after that.”
Savannah Citron, professor of sociology, is pursuing her master’s in counseling psychology. For Citron, the extended break was both a combination of positives and negatives, due to her dual role at California Baptist University. As a student, she had prepared and motivated herself to be ready to start the semester the two weeks prior.
When this did not happen, it was difficult to keep up that same energy for another two weeks. Though as a professor, she said she appreciated the extended break for extra prep time. In this way, Citron’s responses to the extended break were able to balance each other out.
“I am glad to be back,” Citron said. “As a student, I am glad to be back and working with the subject material that I have. I got to spend a nice break with my family and am ready to get back into the swing of things. As a professor, I am definitely really excited to engage with my class for the semester and the students I have to work with. I want to make sure I provide encouragement to my students and make myself available as a resource to anyone who may need anything I can give them.”
