Five Ways to Pass the Time Till ‘Tis the Season

Assuming you’re reading this while still knee deep in the post-Thanksgiving dinner induced slump, odds are that the days drag on, and December seems like it can’t end quickly enough. How many more days until you have an entire week to catch up on sleep, homework, and all five perfect seasons of Breaking Bad? It goes on forever! Well, luckily enough for you, there are plenty of enjoyable ways to pass the time, so here are a few to get you through these hard few days.

5. Sort out your socks. As we enter into the classic New York winter, it’s more than necessary to start preparing for the cold. No matter what side of the socks versus no socks debate you’re on, I think one thing we all hate is having cold feet, or even worse, the feeling of wet feet after stepping through snow with thin shoes. Before it comes to that, why not dig out all of your socks? Take a suggestion from your mom and pick up after yourself—your laundry needs to be done, anyway. Lint roll all of them while you’re at it, too. Who knows what grime is on them after changing in a school locker room? Maybe now the socks you lost last year will finally pop up after seeing your change in heart regarding sock treatment. Sorting out those 57 socks you have shouldn’t take too long unless you really just want to find that last sock. You wouldn’t want to wear mismatched socks anywhere (unless you consider that a fashion statement, in which case, go right ahead), so it’s probably a good idea to find it now. Save yourself the time in the morning looking for that other sock.

4. Experiment with Thanksgiving leftovers. In this modern day and age, our food has so many preservatives that an ancient Egyptian mummy would be green with envy. But after a week, no one wants to eat old turkey and peas. Why not go the science route with it? See how long it will last untouched in the back of your fridge next to the moldy Hot Pocket you couldn’t finish and decided to save for later two years ago. See if it’ll outlast the light in the freshmen’s eyes. Though it may look concerning, torn to shreds from the dinner, and entirely filled with green and white fuzz, like an ant colony has settled in it, I assure you that it’s still likely very pristine-looking on the outside. Just don’t eat it. It may look as perfect as it did at the end of Thanksgiving, but just like mummies, I don’t think eating any of it will provide you with much benefit.

3. The Met Project. Whether you’re a freshman or not, the winter season comes with the first wave of Stuyvesant-exclusive fun: the long and annoying trip to the Met Museum. The awkwardness that comes with taking out a sketchbook in the sculpture section and the general boringness of an art gallery are any freshman’s nightmare. For everyone else, though, it’s a chance to relive the past, except better. Instead of suffering the pain of having to do the project yourself, now is the prime time to go to the Met and laugh uproariously at freshmen who still have their perfectionist tendencies from middle school. For the freshmen: good luck, since something’s got to save your tanking art grade!

2a. Plan out gif… suddenly learn financial management! Right now is the best time to go shopping. Coming out of the week of Black Friday deals, it’s time for the pre-holiday sales, and all the best things come out at this time, anyway. Obviously, going gift-shopping (for others, too, not just you) now would be the smart choice. But wait, take a step back. First of all, how would you afford any of that? You also have to afford your daily caffeine, your lunch, and every color of highlighter you find. How would you live without them? Of course, skimping out on gifts is a bad idea, but so is going into bankruptcy as a teenager! Do yourself a favor and watch at least one finance guru’s TikTok series on budgeting before going shopping. Just remember, only proceed through Target with extreme caution (and a large coat with many pockets)!

2b. Start investing. Now that you’re already following this TikTok finance bro, why not also check out his series on passive income and buying stocks? He sure knows what he’s talking about. Maybe buying Bitcoin will really do you some good, and would he really lie to you about that? Him? Your one-stop expert for all things money? Maybe it’s a little too late for GameStop, but surely one of these new electric car manufacturers will really strike it big. Better start now!

1. Sleep. We all know that the number one IRL time speeding-up glitch is sleep. The only way to go from one day to the next is by playing the sleep cutscene, and oh, would you look at that—it’s the next morning. That applies to other times of day too. If you really want it to be afternoon so that you can go home, just sleep through the morning. The less time you spend awake before break, the less time you have to pass with boring time fillers. Maybe you’ll find that dreamland is so much better than this painful reality. A world without your scary math teacher and filled with all your favorite anime characters? Now that sounds amazing! I wouldn’t want to leave… Maybe I would be better off sleeping forever…

The weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break are some of the longest in the whole year—it feels like you’ve gone through another year just to get to the good part of the year! What a weird time of the year’s year. Soon it’ll be time for the comforts of winter break, but after that momentary bliss, it’ll be another few mindless weeks until your next week of freedom. Maybe then you can work on failing your New Year’s resolutions or, better yet, preparing for your day alone on Valentine’s day.