The semester is beginning to wind down, and finals are just around the corner. I seriously cannot believe that my first semester of seminary is already nearly over. It’s crazy. But since Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are coming up soon, I’m going to be spending a lot of time back in my hometown. I’m really excited to get away from school for a bit and spend time with my family and friends, whom I have not seen very much since I moved to Waco.

Since I’m going to be spending so much time back home in the near future, I decided to sit down and think through what going home means to me and how I want to approach it. I came up with this list of a few things I’m going to try to do while I’m home for the holidays.

1. Be present.

This is probably my biggest goal when I go home. When I’m with my family and loved ones, I want to be completely there. I don’t want to be worrying about papers and exams and readings. I want to focused on the people I’m with and the precious little time I get to spend with them. I’m not going to fail out of school if I take a few days off of school, and if I get a week behind on some TV shows, oh well. All of those things will be waiting for me when I get back to school. But while I’m home, I want to give my time, attention, and energy to those around me.

2. Reconnect.

They say that in order to maintain a friendship with someone, you should be in contact with them every 14 days. If that’s the case, I’m a really bad friend. This time at home is a good opportunity to reconnect with people I haven’t spent time with since I moved away, people I care about deeply but haven’t been able to connect with much between school and work and everything else. With all of those distractions out of the way, I’lll have opportunities to spend time with people I haven’t seen in a while, and I’m really excited about that.

3. Relax.

Finally, this is a break. That means it’s a time to recuperate and change pace a bit. I’m going to get some extra sleep and let myself be lazy for a while. I might even loosen up on my dietary restrictions for a day or two. Crazy, right? But that’s what breaks are for. They’re for letting loose and giving your body and mind time to heal from the ridiculous amount of work we put them through. If we don’t give ourselves breaks when we have the opportunity, we’re setting ourselves out for burnout. So I’m making it a goal to set aside some “me time” over the break on top of the other things I’ll be doing.

There you have it. That’s what I’m doing over the break. I’m pretty happy with my plans, and I think they’re going to be really good for me. I’m sure a lot of you have similar plans for the break, but if you have something different in mind, I’d love hear about it. Whatever you’re doing over the break, be safe, have fun, and make it meaningful! I’ll talk to you guys next week.