I know it is the end of semester and you don’t really want to read about something fun that I did this weekend. The exhaustion has settled into your bones, the headaches are a constant presence and you don’t remember what it is like to sleep the entire night without waking up and screaming, “Taylorism, the answer is Taylorism!”

However, this post is just to remind you, my friends, that in this abyss of absolute darkness there is a beam of light – which we call the weekend. You have to be on the lookout for it and hold onto it the minute you see it.  If the thoughts of readings, essays and presentations stop you from grabbing onto it, you have to push them aside.

This weekend a bunch of friends and I (Master’s students at LSE) decided to have an early Christmas potluck.  The potluck was huge success: with food aplenty, conversation about inane topics like fashion, music and dancing…. did I mention there was food? A lot of it. And it was good. Some of which we even made ourselves – so not the kind of food you get in a box.  But what made the evening a success was not the food or the exchange of Secret Santa presents, it was the fact that for one night we left LSE and related worries behind. We did not talk about the presentation which comprises of one third of our grade. We did not obsess over the mountain of reading that awaited us when we returned home. We did not think about applying for jobs and updating our CVs. For one night we just had fun!

Why am I telling you this? Because I think there is lesson to be learnt here. Although I returned to my place late at night with my hurting feet and a belly that felt too full, this night of ‘forgetting’ the craziness of LSE helped me deal with the idea of packing for Christmas break, cleaning my room, finishing my readings, practising that presentation along with the rest of the tasks on my never-ending list. I believe that sometimes we get so caught up with our studies that we forget that a small break now and then is a good thing.

So here is my tip for the next semester: take a break, believe me it will be far more beneficial than staring at that computer screen.

Happy Holidays!