Summer break. The time to finally unfold and relax, with the reassurance that there’s still two months of absolutely no stress and no worries. However, the winter break students enjoy in the midst of a busy school year is another time students look forward to relaxing. This year at Glenbard West, summer was reduced by a week due to new scheduling which allows students to take finals before winter break.

Knowing the reasons for the change, many students are okay with it, and some have expressed their opinions about this.

Ali Syed, junior at West, said, “My opinion is that we should be thankful for this benefit provided to us by the school, and I believe it is sort of a compromise; you start school a week earlier than usual and end accordingly.”

Focusing on the end results seems to allow people to grasp a better understanding of the situation.

Zaina Ahmed, sophomore at West also looked at the change in a positive way stating,  “I was kind of mad, but I like it because I prefer the finals to be before winter break so I don’t have to stress about it.”

Stress is definitely a common thought when it comes to school, so it seems two weeks without it in the middle of the year is appreciated.

Finally, Liliana Aguilar, sophomore at West said, “Personally, I feel that school starting a week earlier helps the students get a better start and be ahead of others, but I felt that it stressed me out since I had to be prepared earlier. I guess I just got used to the idea to the school starting a little earlier that it kind of threw me off.”

Overall, school starting earlier has its ups and downs, and we hope it proves to be beneficial.