By Bella Sarbora, Staff Writer

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” gushes the beloved holiday song. Well, not if you’re a high school student loaded up with school work. 

December is one of my favorite months, as it is for most people. Three weeks of vacation bliss, full of cozying up with my weighted blanket and watching horrendous Hallmark movies until I cry. 

But there’s always a pit in my stomach that I try to bury with cheesy cliches and festive decorations. That pit is the stack of homework I’ve hidden in my backpack, pretending it doesn’t exist. “I have like three weeks, I’ll do it later,” I think, laying miserably in my own procrastination until my stress boils over and I lethargically get up from my couch.

All jokes aside, I do consider myself to be a decent student. December is right around the end of the first semester. As a senior, these grades are going to be ones colleges will see. This means every free 100 you can get for turning in a crumbled paper that resembles homework counts. I don’t have the luxury of just not doing it, so there is only one way I can enjoy every second of the holidays. 

Convince all of my teachers to not assign work. 

Our holiday break is meant to give us time with our family. Older siblings come home for the first time since last year, aunts and uncles pop in and out, cousins you didn’t know you had suddenly show up, and grandparents watch the chaos unfold as everyone gathers together. 

The week after Christmas is probably the most exhausting one out of the whole year. I have six cousins under the age of 11 and as the eldest, my brother and I are usually in charge of entertaining them. I love them all dearly and treasure every moment, but in my grandparents’ tiny house from the ’30s, it gets overwhelming. 

Why figure out what X equals when I can figure out which of my uncle’s exes my grandma ran into at the store? Wouldn’t you rather me hear the satire in my other uncle’s political rant than the satire in “Gulliver’s Travels”? I sure would. 

So pay attention, all FFHS and COA staff: DON’T BE THAT TEACHER. Us students know who assigns a 1,500-word essay and who lets us watch a movie in class. You don’t want to be known for your cruel assignments, right? You want to be the cool, hip teacher, don’t you? You have to know that none of us are going to really try and that it’s a waste of time. 

Besides, think about the benefits for you: No stack of papers or Google Classroom notifications cluttering your email. Just you and your family relaxing – like the rest of us want to do. 

To wrap up my long list of complaints, I would like to reinforce my formerly stated idea that all I want for Christmas is to not have a looming mountain of homework. The new semester is about to start and we all want to end on a high note, not a drained, monotonous one. So instead of making students pull out our calculator on the long car ride home from Grandma’s house, let us pull out our pillows and take a nap. 

Senior Bella Sarbora can be reached at [email protected].