Finals are this week. Now once you’ve stopped crying after reading the first sentence, take a deep breath. Because after finals, we have winter break. But wait, there’s more! Due to the fact that we live in a materialistic society where all we care about is the size of our TV, even our winter break can’t be relaxing.

Now, I’m not a fan of most holidays, and I’m certainly not as huge of a grinch as my sister, but Christmas has been stressing me out. First off, the money aspect. Most high schoolers (I assume) work at minimum wage jobs. So the fact that we are expected to buy thoughtful gifts for all of our friends and family members and bosses and everyone else under the sun, is crazy. I really want to get gifts for everyone, I love giving gifts, but it’s incredibly difficult to budget my money to cover all these presents as well as filling up my gas tank.

I’m not hating on Christmas. I actually enjoy getting a little time off school to eat and get presents. However, when did it change from hanging out with family and friends while watching cute movies while it snows to punching people in Jordan Creek because they took the last Taylor Swift CD?

The whole season is skewed. Thanksgiving is the day where we give thanks for all that we have, and the next day is where we act out Mufasa’s death scene in the Walmart doorway. Gifts need to start becoming things like spending a day talking in a coffee shop or going to the movies together or making them cookies. You don’t have to break the bank to be thoughtful.

Regardless of my ranting, nothing will change. We’ll all go home after our finals on Tuesday and start wrapping gifts like they are worth 15% of our grade as well. That’s just the circle of life. So instead of that, this holiday season, try and think about the gifts you are giving, and ask yourself, is a material object really what this person wants?