Making the most out of Easter holidays

The obvious cliche of Easter holidays being used as a time to recharge for the final push of the academic year is undoubtedly true, but one thing that often gets overlooked is the way you recharge. Specifically, with the particularly long Easter holidays at Warwick compared to other unis, I’m sure many other Warwick students will agree that we can afford more time to do things that we seldom have the opportunity to do during term time.

For domestic students, obviously that means going home spending precious time with families, because if you think about it, once you graduate and work full time, you will rarely have extended periods of time when you will be able to just stay at home without the stress of going away to work, and really living at home with the freedom of being a student.

For international students like myself, travelling ‘home’ may not be as convenient, which is why I am taking this opportunity to visit my close friends scattered across the UK. With some in Edinburgh, others mainly in London, it will also provide a refreshing change in scenery away from Coventry. It enriches your experiences and memories from university and even young adulthood significantly. Crucially, taking time dedicated to meeting up with close friends maintains genuine strong bondings which you can keep for life.

Whilst studying and preparing for exams are important, overlooking childhood friendships may be an easy thing to do especially with myopic focus on exams coming up, but when your exams are over and everyone goes on separate ways with various summer jobs, that meet-up you promised with your friends all those month ago becomes an event that always seems to be on the back of your mind, but never happens.

So don’t let the long 5 week break in Easter pass you by. Get your revision in, but also make sure to visit your friend, your relative who you haven’t seen in a while, and complete other ad-hoc tasks at the back of your mind- maybe start looking at summer jobs, sort your wardrobe out and give away the items that you just have to admit you rarely used and will likely never use again.

Whatever it is, just make sure that Easter holidays isn’t just about revision, because in the bigger picture over your life course, you will rarely have this opportunity again to consolidate friendships, memories, and experiences in the final stages of academic life. Besides, feeling happier will also undoubtedly lead to more productive revision sessions in shorter amounts of time!

I know I will certainly be sacrificing a lot of time travelling around to meet-up with various people, but that is certainly compensated in the long term by the memories and experiences I will look back fondly on for the rest of my life, and will also provide a much more sustainable recharge to my academic ‘batteries’ in the more immediate future! For me, this recharge will start at China town, with a humble meal certainly involving dumplings and Xiao Long Bao with several friends, indulging in cuisine that imitates (though not quite replicating) home.