{"id":457,"date":"2014-12-06T02:35:42","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T02:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=457"},"modified":"2014-12-06T02:39:12","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T02:39:12","slug":"457","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/457\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas as a college student"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_97352\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BY HAUNANI TOMAS
\nMANAGING EDITOR<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In lieu of the post-Thanksgiving weekend,
\nChristmas time has arrived in full
\neffect. Our favorite holiday songs pepper
\nthe radio stations and every girl listens to
\nMariah Carey\u2019s rendition of \u201cAll I Want for
\nChristmas is You,\u201d at least once a day.<\/p>\n

However, something has changed this
\nyear compared to last: you\u2019re a year older.
\n(Obviously). Although it may just seem like
\nanother 365 days have passed, the years add
\nup.<\/p>\n

In unsuccessfully attempting to avoid
\nsounding like the Grinch, Christmas is just
\nnot as thrilling as it was all those years ago.
\nActivities ranging from Black Friday
\nshopping to opening presents on Christmas
\nDay are just plain different from what they
\nused to be.<\/p>\n

SHOPPING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your Black Friday shopping isn\u2019t for you
\nanymore. Rather, it\u2019s for your mother\u2019s coworkers
\nand presents for extended family.
\nYou\u2019ll easily spend $50 at Bath & Body
\nWorks alone, taking advantage of the ridiculous
\nhand soap and candle deals that
\ncould come in handy for any potential lastminute
\npresents (a.k.a. the people you forgot
\nabout).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re lucky enough to squeeze in
\nsome \u201cme\u201d shopping time, you\u2019ll most likely
\nsin in the form of overpayment at any of
\nthe following: Target, Target or, probably,
\nTarget. And, if we aren\u2019t struggling enough
\nalready, we\u2019ll find every reason to spend the
\nmajority of our November paycheck at our
\nfavorite department store.<\/p>\n

PRESENTS
\n<\/strong>
\nThe pressure of picking out presents
\nincreases dramatically. You can\u2019t get away
\nwith buying merchandise from the school
\nbookstore anymore.<\/p>\n

Also, there no longer exists a plethora of
\npeculiar-shaped, mysterious presents bearing
\nyour name underneath the tree. Your
\npresents are most likely in a boring box,
\ncontaining clothes (that you picked out) or,
\neven better, gift cards to buy clothes.<\/p>\n

Your response to the ever-probing question
\n\u201cWhat do you want for Christmas?\u201d always
\nbegins with \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d when in
\nreality, there exists a mentally stored yearround
\nlist that only seems to grow. You just
\ndon\u2019t want to admit it to anyone because if
\nyou want it, it makes sense if you just buy
\nit, right?<\/p>\n

CHRISTMAS DAY
\n<\/strong>
\nSleeping in on Christmas day isn\u2019t an option,
\nespecially if you have younger siblings.
\nThroughout the entire term we rise and
\nshine at the ripe hour of seven in the morning
\nto attend our eight o\u2019clock classes. We\u2019ve
\nalready paid our dues in the form of sleepdeprivation
\nevery Monday and Wednesday
\n(or maybe Tuesday and Thursday).<\/p>\n

Waking up early isn\u2019t as holly-jolly as it
\nused to, mostly because a prolonged slumber
\nnow trumps our gifts, which will still be
\nwaiting under the tree after noon. They\u2019re
\nnot going anywhere.<\/p>\n

CELEBRATIONS
\n<\/strong>
\nFor all you over-twenty-oners, Christmas
\nbecomes yet another excuse to celebrate
\nwith some (or a lot of) booze. Did
\nyou really think you could finally start that
\ndetox over winter break to cleanse your
\nbody of all the tequila shots you\u2019ve downed
\nthroughout the term?<\/p>\n

Two-words: peppermint schnapps.
\n<\/strong>
\nAlong with (hopefully responsible)
\nboozing, comes the return of the multitude
\nof ugly sweater parties. This is the only
\ntime of year when having the most hideous
\nChristmas sweater is actually a compliment.
\nI repeat, the only time of the year.<\/p>\n

DECORATIONS
\n<\/strong>
\nDecorating the Christmas tree becomes
\nanother task on your chore list when you
\nrealize that you\u2019re probably, or definitely,
\ngoing to be responsible for cleaning, packing
\nand storing all of the ornaments.<\/p>\n

Every. Single. One.
\n<\/strong>
\nThe responsibility of cleaning up the
\nChristmas tree is all yours now. Not your
\nmom\u2019s.<\/p>\n

When driving around town to see who
\nhas the most Christmas lights and frontyard
\nd\u00e9cor, I can only think of two things:
\nmy mileage per gallon and how insanely
\nhigh everyone\u2019s electricity bill must be at
\nthe beginning of January.<\/p>\n

However, for those of you who have
\nChristmas lights in your room year-round,
\nthere\u2019s no real surprise there.
\nRegardless, of how un-holly-jolly things
\nmight be during the holidays, it is still the
\nmost wonderful time of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Christmas isn\u2019t as exciting as
\nit once was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}