Jocelyn Buggy ‘22

On a Plane to Miami

Editor’s note: This article appears in our annual Eggplant Edition, comprised exclusively of satirical articles.

During typical semesters, the first week of March brings a welcome break for Holy Cross students, faculty, and staff.  The campus usually buzzes with excitement on the last Friday of classes before a whole nine days of rest and relaxation.  Whether jetting to a tropical location or going home to spend time with family, students have generally looked forward to some time away from campus after eight grueling weeks of academics.  One might think that the unprecedented emotional, physical, and financial stress facing college students as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic would make Holy Cross students want a break now more than ever.  However, this appears to be far from the truth, as students organized a letter writing campaign last week to thank the Holy Cross administration for their decision to take away Spring Break this semester.

From Monday March 15 to Friday March 19, over 1,000 students wrote heartfelt thank you notes to the administration expressing their gratitude for taking away something that typically brings them such joy.  The organizers of this initiative had originally planned to tape these letters on the walls of Fenwick 1.  Due to the overwhelming support from the student body, however, the entire first floor was completely covered with thank you notes by 2pm on Monday.  Because of this, the overflow of letters were placed in the Cantor Art Gallery, as many of them featured artistic design elements including rhinestones and heart-shaped stickers.  

The Spire had the opportunity to interview a number of students to hear first-hand why they are so grateful to Holy Cross for this Spring Break decision.  John Chobani ‘21 said: “I wrote a letter because I wanted to thank Holy Cross for pushing me beyond what I had always considered the breaking point of my physical and mental health.  I’ve really appreciated how the school has reimagined cura personalis for its students this year.  People always talk about the importance of rest in order to avoid things like “burn out” and “hitting a wall,” but the administration has shown me that those ideas are simply outdated.  By maintaining this immense level of academic pressure with no break, Holy Cross has shown me what I’m really capable of: ignoring my body’s desperate mental, physical, and emotional cues for rest in the name of academics.”Sophomore Jessa Buggar ‘23 told The Spire that she was initially disappointed by the Spring Break news, but is now appreciative of the administration’s decision.  “I love that Holy Cross knows me even better than I know myself,” she said. “This reminds me of last semester when 1,500 people signed a petition to get a Pass/Fail policy.  After the school told us that we couldn’t come back to campus two weeks before move-in day, I thought I wanted some compassion from my institution- but now, I’m grateful to have been so humbled by the drop in my GPA.  Plus, no Spring Break means that I have even more time to eat haddock from Kimball, which is what I’m really willing to pay 3.25% more for next year!”  Buggar’s sentiment seems to reflect the general tone of the student body, as discussions have begun regarding how to convince the administration to shorten winter break by 5 weeks.  Overall, Holy Cross students are clearly grateful for another 7 days of crushing academic pressure to distract them from the stress of Covid-19.