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By Claire Reinthaler

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — Winter break is now in full swing, a time for relaxing, enjoying the holidays and spending time with family and friends. Winter break is also a great time to reset and get your head back in the game for the rest of the school year. As someone who is familiar with the end of first semester burnout going into the holidays, here are some simple activities you can do over the holidays to clear your mind and be ready for school again in January.

Reorganize your backpack

Personally, I know I am in desperate need of this. Your backpack is your lifeline at school, containing all the essentials you might need on any given day, but most of us have a tendency to get more and more careless with how we store our school supplies as the semester goes on. Taking out your binders and notebooks and making sure all your papers are clipped in where they need to be will ensure that you don’t miss any homework you might need to complete during break and that any important notes or assignments aren’t lost or crushed. Taking out your pencil case as well if you have one and reloading it with some new pencils, pens and erasers can also be a nice way to reset your bag for the spring semester.

Read a book that isn’t for school

Even as someone who loves to read, I completely understand how hard it is to read during the school year. With the vast number of books and textbooks you have to read for your classes, it can often be hard to find reading for fun even when it’s not for an assignment. Winter break is a great time to take a look at your bookshelf or go and grab a new book from the library and spend some time just reading for fun without the pressure of also having to read for school.

Make a second semester calendar

This is really simple, but it has huge value when your schedule gets busy. Get some blank sheets of paper or poster board and some markers, and draw a calendar with any events or assignments you know you have coming up on it. As the rest of the school year goes on, add new events and assignments and hang the calendar up in your room so you know what you have to get done each day. To make it more fun, you can also decorate your calendar with different color markers and stickers. If you have a dry erase board, you can draw your calendar on that and then reset it for each month.

First and foremost, holiday break should be about enjoying the time off, but getting into a good headspace for second semester with these activities and others can help make the transition back to school in January a little easier.

Happy holidays, Titans. See you in 2024.