On Wednesday, Feb. 14, as classes and Valentine’s Day shenanigans drew to a close, St. Lawrence University welcomed its mid-semester break. While the bustling of the Sullivan Student Center calmed down for a brief moment in time, students used the time afforded by the extended weekend in a multitude of ways. Some used the extended weekend as an opportunity to leave campus, while others stayed back to complete assignments. Either way, the prevailing consensus is that the break, like all good times, seemed to fly by.   

To those who were on campus for the most part, the lack of classes on Thursday and Friday diverted them away from their increasingly hectic academic schedules. Mahmoud Ali ’26 talks about feeling a sense of relief on not having to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. “It could not have come up at a better time,” he says. “I hadn’t slept in days until that point.”  

Indeed, as campus seemed to get enveloped in a heavy blanket of snow, it seemed appropriate that some were finally able to do the things they never had the time for. Students worked for longer hours in relaxed environments. “It was honestly such a different experience than usual,” notes Berenice Gervacio ’25, who worked the hockey games with a much smaller crowd than usual.   

While stalwarts such as the dining services operated at limited capacities, students were able to make use of the other offerings available on campus. For international students, the ISS organized trips to Potsdam and ice-skating over the weekend, as temperatures dropped as low as -10 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In fact, winter seemed to have finally arrived in earnest this semester, even for students who took the opportunity to go off-campus. Margot Bouchery, an exchange student, stayed in Lake Placid with a group of friends. “We were freezing when we were doing all our hikes,” she said. But at the end, as she marveled about the landscape of the Adirondacks, she said she believes that it was all worth the struggle.  

As we returned, rather reluctantly, to our previous schedules, the break seemed a welcome distraction from what is now the second quarter of our semester. The upcoming weeks will be grueling, to say the least. As we fend off the challenges posed by our coursework, some will indeed look back at these last four days fondly, grateful for its existence and lamenting its brief duration.