Many college students visit home for the holidays. Generally speaking, visiting home can be somewhat stressful. Many college students are still in that awkward “not still a kid, not quite an adult yet” phase. At least, that’s how it can feel.
Adults want their college-aged children to act like adults and take on adult responsibilities, yet once their children come home they may still have a curfew or have to sit at the kids’ table during dinner. Needless to say, this can add to a college student’s stress.
So what can you do to keep your stress levels from skyrocketing? Here are nine ways to have a relatively stress free holiday season.
1. No matter how tempting it is, don’t discuss politics. Sure, Americans will be voting for the next President of the United States in less than a year, and it’s an obvious conversation topic, but don’t do it. Talking about politics makes even the most mild mannered of people go crazy with rage. Unless you are 100% sure everyone at the table has the exact same opinion as you, keep your mouth shut.
2. This goes for religion too.
3. If for some reason religion or politics does come up and there has been an intense argument, it’s okay to go for a quick walk to cool down. Actually, if you need to take a break from your family for a little bit, for any reason, find an excuse and go for a walk. You’ll feel better afterwards.
4. If your Grandma or uncle or whomever starts to say something racist, change the subject. Just keep changing the subject until they stop. And if they don’t, see #3.
5. You will hear the same things over and over and over again. You will be told how big you’ve gotten. You will be asked how school is. You will be asked what major you are. Unless you are going into law or medicine or something along those lines, you’ll probably be told that your major is a dying field and you’ll never get a job in that. Basically, you will have the same three to four conversations with literally every adult at your family gathering. There are literally two solutions to this problem: make and print out an FAQ pamphlet or keep a tally of how many times you get asked these questions. They are the only two ways to keep sane.
6. Find an ally and stick with them. Whether your ally is your sibling, your cousin or your friend who is just there for some reason, make sure you have one. It’s always good to have someone you can exchange glances with when your uncle starts going into his conspiracy theories.
7. If your ally is celebrating the holidays with their family/can’t be with you, make sure they know you will probably text them rants and they need to respond and vise versa. If your family doesn’t like you texting, be subtle about it.
8. If you know you are going to need to bail half way through because you only have so much patience, set up a plan. Even if it’s just getting a friend to call you because “your apartment is flooding” or “your cat is in labor” or whatever, do it. Find an excuse to leave and leave. Don’t let your family guilt trip you into staying if you don’t want to stay.
9. If you need to, use Kimmy Schmidt’s coping mechanism: just try to get through ten seconds at a time. If you can get through these ten seconds, you can get through the next ten seconds too (and if you can’t, it may be time to do #3 or #8).