labor day: the best holiday for students ever!

say what?

there are many wonderful "student holidays" or "breaks" in the semester. and i am a huge fan of them all. let's face it, by the time fall break rolls around, you need a couple of days to find the surface. thanksgiving gives you some time to be with family and eat and again find the surface. christmas break is better because the semester is over and you get way more days off than you did as a child. spring break is pretty cool because it's actually a whole week and you might even go somewhere (to escape the cold because it can hardly be called spring at the time of the break). good friday's a freebie (and i'll take it). and then we get to summer, which, again, is way longer than you had as a child. so what's the big deal about labor day?

given that we are nearing that holiday, you'd think my reflective side would think a little more about, oh i don't know, sabbath or something. and believe me, i do plan to sleep. but here's the thing. i have finished the first week and a half of my first semester in this ph.d. program (enter oh, shit face here) fairly unscathed (just a couple of paper cuts from all the articles i have printed and read/am reading). the challenge has been to find my rhythm and i've yet to really do that, due to a combination of things. consequently, i am already below the surface in terms of reading or knowing which end is up...though not so far that i can't find the top. the good news is, i have a few days this weekend to regroup and figure out what lies ahead for the next couple of months.

my point is this: labor day comes at a great time in the semester. you've (hopefully) gotten past the initial shock of the beginning of school (and beginning is loaded here) and you now have a few days to regroup and get to it. a week and a half and you get a little break. it's beautiful.