Following midterms, fall break took place from Saturday, Oct. 14 to Sunday, Oct. 22. Students have since returned to campus and reflected on everything they did over break.
Junior and Lyons Hall resident Corinne Quane went on two trips over fall break — portaging in Canada and visiting her sister in Colorado.
“It was really fun,” Quane said. “We camped for two nights, but we were like paddling for three days.”
Portaging involves canoeing through a series of lakes and finding campsites along the way, Quane said. Her friend suggested the trip after the two went on a road trip together to South Carolina during spring break last semester.
“After the canoe expedition, I flew to Colorado to visit my younger sister who's a freshman at CU Boulder and the outdoorsy activities continued,” said Quane.
There, Quane hiked, biked and saw a Taylor Swift laser show in the planetarium on campus. Quane traveled home to Short Hills, N.J. for her two previous fall breaks, which she termed “recharging.”
“I'm really glad I went, but I also like definitely understand and appreciate the benefit of just going home and seeing your family,” Quane said.
Jack Simpson, a freshman in Carroll Hall, traveled home to East Greenwich, R.I. for fall break.
“One of the first things I did was get my hair dyed back,” Simpson said. “So I went to a hairdresser, my mom's hairdresser, and dyed it back to brown.”
Simpson also made stops at universities, visiting his sister at Salve Regina University and his friends at Brown University. At home, Simpson saw his two younger siblings, grandparents and pets — including his puppy that he got before coming to Notre Dame in August.
“(Being away) was weird because usually you're so used to living in like a busy house with so many siblings … so it was weird,” Simpson said. “But it was nice to be able to get them back and spend time with them.”
Freshmen Micah Bell and Jeremiyah Love both play on Notre Dame’s football team. The team had practice from Monday to Wednesday, but both headed home after Wednesday’s practice.
“(Having practice but not schoolwork) was amazing,” Bell, who is from Houston, Texas, said. “It was amazing because I didn’t have to worry about any school or go to class, so I could sleep in.”
According to Bell, the team has not had a break from practice since they began the football season with fall camp in August. Bell did not participate in any workouts over the break.
“Practice was cool though,” Love, who is from St. Louis, Mo., said. “Didn’t have class either, so I thought it was pretty chill. After practice, we went home to the dorms and just chilled.”
Love later added that the team’s next big break will be in December, so they have “time until then.”
“(Fall break) was good,” said Bell. “I would rate it like eight out of ten.”
Also staying on campus for part of fall break, senior Megan Sherry did work in preparation for graduate school applications. Sherry is majoring in psychology and classics and hopes to attend graduate school for library science on an archive track.
“On Monday, I went down to IU Bloomington for a visit to talk to the director of the library science programs there to ask about the program and get tips for applying,” Sherry, who lives in Pasquerilla West Hall, said.
Sherry also worked from Tuesday to Thursday over fall break at her on-campus job at the library.
“My main goal over break was to finish my personal statement for applications for grad school,” Sherry said. “It is not yet done, but we made progress.”
Sherry saw her sister over the first weekend of fall break when she came for the football game. Towards the end of fall break, Sherry traveled home to see her parents before driving back to Notre Dame for the Saturday night hockey game.
“I was home for like not even 48 hours, but enough to see my cat and that's all that matters,” Sherry, who lives in Cambridge, Ohio, said.
Sophomore Paul Gates, a philosophy major who attends Holy Cross College, traveled to Arizona with six other students over fall break.
“I went to Phoenix and worked at the Andre House, which is a Holy Cross apostolate, serving folks experiencing homelessness and what they call the Zone, which is just kind of a population of people who live outside,” Gates said. “It was unbelievable."
The group traveled with Reverend Eric Schimmel who formerly directed the Andre House. Schimmel is the current rector of Dunne Hall.
Freshman Jordan Ramirez traveled home to what he termed “the best state in the United States” — Texas. Ramirez lives near Fort Worth and saw his family for the first time since Welcome Weekend.
“Of course, I love my family, especially my baby niece,” Ramirez, who lives in Baumer Hall, said. “She’s so cute. She kind of took over my room. It was a mess when I got there.”
Although he thought the break was well-timed, Ramirez said seeing his family again was a happy experience.
Read More
Trending
