As the holiday season approaches, you envision the twinkling lights, the festive music, the spirit of giving. But in reality, you are recklessly studying for finals, last-minute present shopping for your parents, and scurrying to get all of your 89 percents up to 90 percents right before the dreaded final exams begin.

Ah, winter break, a holly jolly time full of Christmas spirit, but also the point in time in which you start to panic about finals and realize all of the other responsibilities piled upon you. You envision your day to be filled with various holiday activities and spending endless amount of time with friends and family. However, this is mainly what happens on a daily basis:

You wake up at 3 p.m. following your 10-hour Netflix marathon that you had the previous night. You tirelessly roll out of bed and attempt to get some of your mountains of school assignments done. Your teachers claim that they want you to have a fun and relaxing break as they assign you homework that is destined to take you all 16 days of your vacation to complete (and maybe even more!). The take-home tests, essays, projects, and worksheets cover the entire floor of your room, staring at you 24/7 and taunting you to complete them.

Feeling defeated after attempting to get through your years of homework, you decide to slowly migrate downstairs in attempt to get some holiday gift wrapping done. You realize that you have only purchased presents for about 3/10 of your list and that you will soon have to venture out of your house (that you have not left for four days) and into the overcrowded stores filled with last-minute gift purchasers just like yourself.

It’s now 5 p.m. and you realize that although you do not have swim practice over break, it is probably not the wisest decision for you to have eaten the whole box of Pillsbury Christmas cookies in one sitting. You attempt to go for a run, desperately trying to remain in shape so that you do not die at practice the first day back to school.

Panting, sweating (and dying a little), you head back home, hoping to get an inch of relaxation in for the day but then coming to the realization that finals are real and you have to study. The review packets, study guides, and textbooks create a cave in your room and you attempt to study without looking at your phone every three minutes. You spend minutes, hours, and days trying to memorize the quadratic formula and how plants undergo photosynthesis yet you still seem to remember nothing from the entirety of first semester. It becomes clear to you that getting that 98 percent on your final in order to bring you from an 88 to a 90 is far from possible and that it’s basically time to give up all of your hopes and dreams.

After another exhausting day of avoiding homework and studying, attempting to purchase gifts for your loved ones, and an excruciating day of trying to exercise,  you decide to call it quits and commence another Netflix marathon. You still have a good portion of winter break left, right?