Despite the festive atmosphere created by the Cathedral’s Christmas tree decorations and the subtle snowfall on a cold day, personal struggles persist on campus, echoing through the hallowed halls through declarations of “I’m depressed,” “I’m stressed out” and “I just want to go home.” In the midst of finals season, students find their own ways to remain in the holiday spirit.
“I haven’t really been coping with the stress that well,” first-year marketing major Julie Romano said. “However, I am still trying to stay positive because I know the end is in sight and Christmas is around the corner.”
Between studying for finals and the regular stress of classes, Romano is still trying to keep the holiday spirit alive by watching Christmas movies and decorating her room with her roommate. Additionally, she is going to Phipps to see the Holiday Flowers Show and to see the Nutcracker at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, where Pitt offers discounted $20 tickets for students.
“I also hope to go ice skating, but I don’t think that’ll happen due to being too busy during finals week,” Romano said.
However, Romano is still looking forward to decorating her floor in Nordenberg with holiday decorations later this week as part of an activity organized by RAs. The activity scheduled for this weekend got postponed to Thursday.
“I am very excited to be able to decorate the floor,” Romano said. “I think it will be fun to see the decorations in my dorm like the ones in the university store.”
Meanwhile, first-year global business major Nate Torres has not participated in many holiday activities. However, he is a member of the Men’s Glee Club, where he sings Christmas songs as part of the ensemble and has a holiday concert next week. In addition to the Men’s Glee Club, many other choir ensembles are offering holiday concerts, such as the Heinz Chapel Choir.
Additionally, Torres helped decorate his house over Thanksgiving break with putting up the Christmas tree. In order to continue the holiday spirit, Torres hopes to go to the Phipps Holiday Flower Show and go ice skating at PPG Place later this week.
“Although there might not be a lot, I definitely feel supported by Pitt for giving students holiday activities,” Torres said.
Torres has two final exams that he is preparing for by looking over the material, redoing old homework and going over vocab lists. In addition to holiday activities, Torres has been going to bed early to make a good sleeping schedule. With early classes, he wants to be able to feel energized and stay motivated.
Meanwhile, sophomore environmental science major Ella Clayton has not participated in many holiday activities around campus, but she still went to see the Peoples Gas Holiday Market in Downtown Pittsburgh. The Peoples Gas Holiday Market consists of booths with food and other holiday merchandise.
Clayton said that she was not aware of any holiday activities that Pitt may be hosting, though she wouldn’t care to do them either way and would rather study. She also doesn’t want to decorate her room for the holidays because it is “too expensive.”
“I do have final exams, so I have been using a lot of studying techniques to prepare for them,” Clayton said. “I have been studying for my finals multiple days in advance so I can just take it one day at a time. I have a lot of finals that are earlier in the week and the first two days, but then I don’t have any until Friday, so it is nice that I can space it out.”