My Winter Break

Winter Break Descriptive Essay

            Winter vacation, the break we all look forward to, the break that culminates our first semester of sleepless nights, constant testing, and final exam cramming. For some, winter break can be a rewarding time where all of that hard, strenuous work pays off, and for others it can mean non-stop catching up on concepts you didn’t quite catch during the year in order to make up for a semester gone wrong. Unfortunately this vacation fell under the second option: “repenting for my report card sins” as I like to call it. No 4.0 gpa means no ice skating, no parties, and no life. However, the teenage spirit is hard to break, and even with harsh restrictions created by parents, it always manages to take you places.

            The first week and a half of winter break was actually decent, despite  my mother’s fury regarding grades, we all managed to get along and have a good time because Hanukah, Christmas, and New Years is not a time for punishment. It is a time for hot chocolate, family fun, and holiday movies that always take place in some snowy state so that we all feel as if we were actually enduring a real winter, which, as we all know is not completely true when you live In Los Angeles, California and it is eighty degrees in December. Now, you may be asking yourselves “did she just write Hanukah and Christmas in the same sentence… I thought she was Jewish!?” (gasp!), while this is true, Judaism and Christianity tend to not mix very well, there is no point in depriving yourself of gifts, and treats when there are perfectly good candles to light, and synthetic trees to decorate, (that’s right I save trees).  If we must go into depth as to what actually took place during the holidays, here’s a little tid bit. Imagine food, lots of it, plate after plate of mashed potatoes, fish, steak, vegetables, rice etc. and to top it all off loads and loads of chocolate. In Israel it is customary to bring a small box of chocolate for friends and family  when traveling abroad so of course grandma decided to top tradition by bringing pounds of it into our home. So on a typical holiday after gorging our faces in food as though it would be our last meal ever, my family usually decides to watch more movies and T.V shows such as maze runner, guardians of the galaxy, Sherlock or really any other movie or show that has nothing to do with the holidays. This pretty much sums up my first week and a half of winter break. As much as I would’ve wanted to write about how stepping out into the white, fluffy snow  while watching my breath make patterns into the cold air as I exhaled made me feel a strong sense of nostalgia as though I were back home in New York, lets face it , it doesn’t snow in Los Angeles, and the only way that I could possibly be reminded of New York winter is if the snow were yellow and being shoved into my face as I slip from the ice that has formed on the ground or the masses of people who are packed like sardines on the side walk.

By the time the second week of break came along, so did report cards. That’s right, the   moment every student longs for, the moment when the grade you knew you got, the grades you told your parents about way in advance in order to give a warning, actually come to life on paper and suddenly its as though you weren’t just singing holiday songs in Hebrew with your family, its as though you’ve kept this massive secret from them as you manipulated them into smiling and keeping their tone of voice level headed, and their words rational in order to hide the fact the your grades despite the constant reminders from progress reports that come every month… are not perfect (gasp again!) Dun Dun Duuuuuuun!. If you were in my position then you might recall the smiles on your parents faces slowly, but gradually tightening into a pursing of the lips, and then rolling into a frown while asking “ What is this!”, even though everyone knows that it is a report card since the paper being waved in front of your face by your mothers tense hands contains the words report card in all caps so that you can’t miss it. This is where the fun slowly but surely comes to a screeching halt. No songs were sung, movies played, or chocolate being eaten as we mourned the death of a 4.0 gpa.

After this massive blowout it was pretty much back to staying locked in my room while finishing homework. However, my only saving grace the next couple of weeks was my grandmother who did not just fly for 26 hours just to watch her favorite (yes, favorite) grand-daughter sit and read the same chapter in her physics book day after day. She convinced a very hesistant mother to allow a very desperate daughter to go to the beach with her while she kept a very cautious eye on me. The beach was my only pleasure. The warm sand, freezing water, and smelly seaweed were my only friends from that point till the end of winter break.

This winter vacation was filled with some of the most uplifting and joyous moments, as well as some of the most tragic. However, even with the disappointments, it is still winter the sky was still clear, and the air was still crisp and cool, and not having to wake up at 6:00 a.m every morning, or come home with ten hours of homework was and will always be awesome. This winter break allowed me to just relax and take in everything that has happened in 2014. I met great people, bad people, had disappointing moments, rewarding moments, and overall survived, which is all that can truly asked for as a human being: just the chance to live another day and learn from another mistake, and enjoy another accomplishment.