By Sophie Strawser, Staff Writer

We are almost done. Finished. Out the door. Our first semester is almost behind us. Now it is simply a challenge of getting through finals week. Professors you liked all throughout the semester will now turn into enemies as you read the first question on their final exam. Friends will become not only a distraction, but even a threat to your final grade. You will either stop eating altogether or eat more than is normally humanly possible to ingest. (I will choose the latter.) The library will be at its all-time fullest and Hofstra USA at its all-time lowest. If you happen to be that individual who finds him or herself sitting at Hofstra USA with simply a plastic container of fried food in front of you, you better pick up your carbs and head to the nearest text book, cause it ain’t high school anymore, honey. Put the finals seatbelt on and get ready to go, ‘cause in two weeks you will be home beginning your winter break.

You have survived the first day of classes: the one where you are scanning the room, silently judging everyone until you find someone that sets off your friend radar.

You made it through your first assignment. That moment when it’s two in the morning and the assignments not done is a moment that only a true college student knows. That moment when you are sending it to Pride Print is an irreplaceable feeling.

We were well prepared for midterms and avoiding a major grade crisis. Even though we entered our classrooms during midterms week with a look of utter repulsion on our faces we came out with a look of relief.

We were even strong enough to fight through frustrating group projects. We dealt with the snobs, the prudes and the ones who choose no work ethic.

Now it’s our turn to survive finals. We have the will power to do it; it’s just a matter of tapping into this willpower.

I want to stay friends with you over break. There will be those friends who will, in two weeks, go home and allow their home to be a second world. Allowing it to swallow them whole, brainwashing them of the friends they created at school. Let’s not do that, Hofstra freshman. Let’s send cute texts when we see something that reminds us of one of our friends. Let’s Skype our college friends just like we Skyped our high school friends while at college. Relationships are able to be maintained through this month long winter break.

Winter break is our time to put away the no. 2 pencils, sell back the textbooks, and enjoy the feeling of not having deadlines. It’s our time to reconnect with friends from back home and brag about all the things you have been doing at Hofstra over the course of your first semester. It is a time for family and for relaxing. Winter break is upon us and it’s our turn to embrace it. See you second semester, freshman. Peace.