Chapter 521

Another winter break had arrived. As the final exam week drew to a close, students across the university were ushering in their winter vacation once again. Freshmen were buzzing with the excitement of their first-ever university break. Juniors had begun to fret over internships or the prospect of graduate school entrance exams. Seniors, for the most part, already had their career paths mapped out; they were either preparing to enter the workforce as corporate drones or were buckling down for graduate school or civil service examinations. By comparison, sophomores were enjoying a winter break free from such anxieties, tempered with a certain maturity. They were free of worry because, as second-year students, they weren’t yet facing the immediate pressures of entering the workforce or the weight of life-altering choices. Their maturity came from the fact that they had already survived one university winter break; the novelty had long since worn off.