The Christmas season is definitely upon us. Everywhere you look the colors, music and bustle of the season are evident. The holiday spirit is clearly all around, but for the busy students on campus, the fact that the Christmas season has arrived may not have truly entered their overworked minds.

Sure, most students have probably attended a Christmas concert or two, gone shopping, or maybe even wrapped a few presents. But many have not been able to set aside the few hours required to decorate the tree with their family or attend a candlelight service at church.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that the world does not slow down for Christmas. In a perfect world, no one would have to go to school or work during the month of December. Time would slow down so that everyone could just savor the holidays and enjoy.

But our world is not perfect and the mere fact that it’s Christmas only seems to make time fly by even faster. Every year the holidays pass at what seems like a breakneck speed. Before you know it, they’re gone.

School is no exception to this ruthless pace. The office may be decorated and the candy cane grams delivered, but let’s face it: no one here is really thinking about Christmas. The only seasons looming large in most students’ minds are soccer season or finals “season”.

If anything, students are busier now than they are at any other time of the year, as classes wind down and sports seasons gear up. The breathless pace of school leaves little time for true appreciation of the season we find ourselves in.

So, the second school gets out for Christmas break, take a second and breathe. Stop and put all the worries and stresses of school behind you. Forget the class you didn’t do as well in as you wanted to. Put aside that nagging final that you botched and just bask in the glow of Christmas.

Go to as many Christmas parties, concerts and gift-exchanges as you can. Relax and rejuvenate. A new semester will begin soon enough. For now, focus all your energy (or lack of it) on the celebration of Christmas and all this Christ-filled season implies.