Ring ring. Your alarm goes off, 6:00 am sharp. You get up, ready to start your school day, only, to your dismay, it isn’t a school day. It is Jan. 3 and still winter break.

Sighing, you reluctantly drag yourself out of bed, ready to take all seven of your finals within a seven-hour period.

This has been a prevalent problem spurring frequent debate for students who often go out of town for the holidays or inconveniently attract sickness during the last days of the semester.

These unfortunate individuals are faced with the disadvantage of the finals makeup schedule: depending on the year, January 3rd or 4th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., a schedule prepared to make you wish you would’ve stayed home while your family journeyed to a sandy, warm beach vacation destination.

But, as students, it’s our responsibility to nourish and fortify our education, even when it becomes more of a challenge to do so. Finals schedules might be a hassle at the time you’re faced with them, but it’s much better than taking a slab out of your break to take your required assessments.

I was faced with this challenge myself in 2021. Every year, my family and I visit family overseas. It’s a tradition we’ve had for as far as I can remember and something I look forward to from January to the next December. I only have an uncle and aunt who live in Nebraska with us, so this annual trip is a big deal as it’s the only time I see my extended family all year. This practice never posed a problem for me until freshman year.

We try to leave as early as possible partly to spend the most time we can with our loved ones and partly because ticket prices skyrocket and availability lowers after the 18th.

In my 9th grade year, I missed both finals days for a family vacation, leaving me to take on the concerning “one-day finals” schedule.

Determined to keep my grades up, I packed all my school supplies and materials with me to work hard on the plane, during free time, or essentially any time I came across the rare sight of internet access.

I was stressed and worried the entire trip, wondering if I was going to remember every theorem I learned for my Geometry class, every vocabulary word for Honors English 9, and all of the terms for Biology for the semester.

It was something I never wanted to repeat, so every year after that I begged and pleaded with my parents not to let me miss those finals days. It cut down on our travel days significantly, as the 20th and 21st, MN’s usual finals dates, are usually the last ones you can snag before the holiday rush.

This left me wondering, why do we have these one-day finals schedules as makeup days?

It seems to create issues for several groups who have to leave early or simply can’t make it these days for one reason or another. Why aren’t students allowed to take them early?

According to school administrators, the reason why MN doesn’t allow early finals is to protect the integrity of the final, as teachers spend a lot of time developing the finals and prepping students for them.

Although students usually try to avoid interfering with finals schedules, sometimes, like for junior Demaysia Townsell, it’s something out of their control.

Townsell got COVID right before the end of the semester of her freshman year and had to come in the next year to take her finals.

For other students, like me my freshman year, being present during finals isn’t possible because of a pre-planned trip or excursion.

But all around, school administration suggests students and parents plan out-of-school events away from finals dates.

In this case, it’s advisable and necessary to plan ahead and communicate with parents to know if you’re heading out of town or have a commitment to something outside of school for these last few days of the semester.

Additionally, if you’re present for at least the last week before break, you’ll gain the benefit of in-class material review and you won’t have to study over break.

Circumstances like one-day finals and the factors that make us students participate in this day might be difficult to plan or anticipate, that is clear, but as students, it is on us to put our education first.

When we are met with the option of gratefully utilizing teachers’ help and completing academic duties at the time they’re due, we should do so and learn to adapt to the consequences if not.