The holidays are here. People are going back home to see their families, arranging meetups with friends or curling up at home with their pets, a blanket and a TV remote. Some choose to go right back to work like the holidays are any other day of the week, some are called in, but a lot of people are taking time off. And that includes university students. There has been a lot of discussion both on- and offline about how everyone is waiting for a “well-earned” holiday. And something about that just rubs me the wrong way.

Why do we feel the need to earn a holiday? I don’t understand why we feel like we have to meet a certain standard or meet some quota before we can take a break. I understand that we all have to get our essays, exams and other projects done before the break, but the idea of that justifying the break feels almost controlling. As if we shouldn’t take care of ourselves before we’ve done enough work. But what is “enough” and who gets to decide that? You and only you? Someone else? Whoever it is, them controlling what is enough can be a slippery slope.

There is a fine line between doing enough and doing far too much. I know a lot of people at our University who work themselves to the point of exhaustion every year, then absolutely crash the moment the holidays roll around, only to get back up and start “earning” another break once the spring semester begins. Then they work until they’re exhausted and crash the moment they’ve “earned” a break. It’s like a never-ending cycle.

But it is a cycle that we can break. It is, of course, in part about how we regulate our own workload, but we can also shift our mentality about holidays. Holidays shouldn’t be something we only earn after a certain amount of work, but rather they should be breaks that we take just to take a break. We aren’t machines, nor are we programmed to be perfect all the time. Both our bodies and minds need to relax and unwind. Without resting, we’re sacrificing our health and happiness, and those should never be sacrificed, nor should they need to be earned.

I believe that the two main things we should not compromise are our health and happiness. And thinking that you have to earn either one is a harmful ideology. That mentality reduces your worth as a person to the work you do, as if you were unworthy of rest and relaxation without doing work to a certain standard or within a specific timeframe. If you have to earn the right to rest, you are in fact only putting yourself down.

It is a different thing to say that you’re looking forward to the holidays so you get to celebrate, see friends and family, or whatever you wish to do during the break you’re taking. Instead of telling yourself that you’ve earned a holiday by working, you could try focusing on being proud of what you’ve accomplished before the break and then shifting your focus to what you wish to do with the time that is allocated for you to unwind.

So, you have not “earned” a holiday. You have the right to a holiday. You get to enjoy some time off in the best way you see fit. Remember that your worth or your right to rest is not determined by the amount or quality of your work. Remember to take care of yourselves, eat some delicious food and get some rest. And have the happiest of holidays!