End-of-semester stress has its rewards

'Tis the season for making egg nog, Christmas shopping, sales in your favorite stores, listening to holiday carols on the radio — and, for most high school students, finals.

The holiday season can be filled with joy and merrymaking and laughter; just remember that while you are cramming for your tests and wrapping up whatever work you can to boost your grade from that B-plus to an A-minus.

For a lot of high school students, the winter months mean vacation is just around the corner. Unfortunately for some, that excitement can bring on a sudden burst of "vacation fever." Less work is handed in, and more plans are made with friends. This can lead to a most unfortunate outcome when the grades come in the mail and parents see the way you've spent your last few weeks of school.

Teachers at Butte View High School realize how stressful the end of the semester can be, and they try to keep an upbeat atmosphere going in their classrooms.

A countdown on all the boards reminds students how much time they have left to accomplish the tasks they need to earn their credits for the semester. The rooms have been decorated with festivities such as stockings and trees, and planning for a small holiday event has begun among the staff and students.

Students who complete their required work for the semester get to participate in the holiday celebration. Cookies and cakes and games will be brought to enjoy on the last day of school in 2008.

A similar event was thrown for the Thanksgiving holiday. Students gathered in the rooms to work diligently on their assignments until lunch — and boy, could you smell the wonderful treats that had been made and brought in to share!

The seniors helped prepare the food for the Thanksgiving feast, much to their delight. When 12:30 rolled around, students gathered to hear a Thanksgiving story brought to life by BVHS Director Mr. Meyers about a bear and his Thanksgiving meal — it's quite a comedy if you can snag him for the tale.

After the meal, students gathered again and had to tell a short story about themselves, something they had done or accomplished that they were thankful for.

All in all, it was a nice way to relax for a bit and ease the stress that these holiday seasons can sometimes bring. The BVHS staff hopes these little tokens of appreciation will help kick everyone's vacation off on the right foot. After all, we take this break to rejuvenate and prepare ourselves for the upcoming semester.

This, of course, means being ready to hit the books again, and for some of us, it means the end of our final chapter in adolescence and the beginning of our first chapter in the real world, a milestone in our life.

So remember, as those long, tiring days of studying draw to a close and the finals quickly approach us, all hard work is rewarded in the end.

Kara Moore is a senior at Butte View High School. Her column appears every sixth week in Education.