All I want for Christmas is a two week break. A break from homework, a break from school, a break from thinking about anything academic. It doesn’t seem like too much to ask for, but when finals occur the second week after Winter Break, I don’t get my wish.

Students deserve a real winter break, one unclouded by worries about finals and grades. As someone who can get slightly neurotic about her grades, I have a hard time enjoying the holidays when I feel like I should be studying.

Last year, I started studying for my two hardest finals in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and my family was not very happy about it. Yet I knew that I couldn’t review 23 chapters worth of American history or hone my calculus skills — or lack thereof — in just one week, and I decided to prioritize my academic well-being over spending time with my grandparents.

I know that it’s too late to move the finals schedule for this school year, but I do not want future students to face the same trade-offs between trying to stay on topic of schoolwork and and taking a true vacation, and I trust that teachers and administrators feel similarly. Only one of my teachers assigned regular homework over break, and not a single one of my teachers verbalized an expectation that we hit the books over the holidays.

Yet I distinctly remember the sense of dread I felt at the beginning of Winter Break as I calculated how much of my precious two weeks would be spent with a textbook.

I realize that not every student cares when finals occur or feels this pressure to tackle homework and studying during winter break. But I also know many students who share my apprehension about challenging finals that will make or break a grade or potentially even a college acceptance.

Many of these students might not end up studying as much as they intended to, and they should not have to feel guilty for taking a break.

When finals occur the second week after Winter Break, the students who most need the vacation are least likely to give themselves one. As a school community that is attempting to address issues of student stress, we need to give them a true break.

Winter break should be an opportunity for reading books for fun, for hanging out with family members and friends or for spending the entire day watching Netflix, without feeling guilty about the textbooks leering from across the room.

My summers have already been taken over by jobs, internships and homework, an irony to which I have (mostly) resigned myself. Admittedly, I have brought this workload upon myself by taking difficult  classes, but that doesn’t mean that my peers and I don’t deserve a break. In a culture like Piedmont’s that constantly pushes stressed-out high schoolers to do more, true relaxation is dramatically underappreciated.

Since decreasing student stress levels has become a top priority within the district, Piedmont should find a way to administer finals before winter break. A number of the proposed academic calendars incorporate this shift, and we should make sure to select one, even if it means starting school earlier in August.

Moreover, we can and should extend this radical notion of a true break to teachers as well. Some teachers worry that having finals immediately before break will eclipse their own vacation, and I certainly do not want to force them to grade during their holidays.

However, our standard half-day finals schedule provides seemingly adequate time for teachers to catch up on grading, and most teachers assign multiple-choice scantron finals anyway. Those who do not could consider administering the essay or short-answer portion earlier than the final’s date if they so chose.

I have also heard arguments that seniors need the month of December to work on their college applications, I argue that proctoring finals before winter break would actually ease their burden as well. Since the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break are traditionally packed with tests and projects, I highly doubt that many seniors write essays during this time period, especially those who are waiting to hear back from early decision schools before completing other applications.

For these seniors, and for the rest of the student body as well, it would be much better to finish the semester strong before taking a true break.

That way, when the final bell of the year rings, we can all head home to enjoy some who-pudding, without letting the grinch steal the best present of all: relaxation.