Written by Ky Tanella and Nevin Allen. Graphic by Ky Tanella.
Every year, Savannah goes quiet for seven weeks as SCAD students return to their homes and celebrate a little holiday we like to call a much-needed break. Overwhelmed by the stress of fall quarter, freshmen and seniors alike flee the city to see their loved ones and recharge… while also polishing that portfolio piece they’re not quite done with, making enough money to pay their bills through June, launching that awesome podcast they had an idea for and a billion other things that can’t be predicted or explained. We burden ourselves with the paradoxical duty of both getting rest and getting things done. So what gives?
For District contributor Nevin Allen, it’s all about having a master plan. “What mostly prevents me from finding peace is the uncertainty of what I need to be doing at any given moment,” Nevin hummed, barely looking up from the laptop on which he vigorously edited this article. “I make a list of everything I want to do over break, and I assign everything to a day. This includes fun things, and it includes days for doing nothing. I try to give myself a week off at the beginning of break, but after that I’m bored.” Nevin’s task list for this break is mostly to do with graduation: polishing his portfolio and searching for internships top out the list. But the list keeps going. At the time of writing this article, Nevin also has seven movies and six seasons of television he wants to watch, four books he wants to read and plenty of things to write. Whether or not the system will see him through remains to be seen.
Ky Tanella, on the other hand, tends to inject a similar stress they felt over finals week into the break. As a senior, opportunities for internships are increasing, and for summer 2025, the application window is just now beginning to open. “It’s very stressful, trying to evenly disperse writing dozens of cover letters weekly. I’m already burnt out from the Fall Quarter, and I’m attempting to reduce further burnout. I’m running on fumes.” Obviously, this is a little dramatic, but it can feel very doom-inducing to go from school-deadlines to job-real-life-deadlines. “Neurodivergency doesn’t help,” Ky said, looking at her millions of tabs open on her computer and laundry piling up on her desk chair, “my executive dysfunction makes it hard to compartmentalize which tasks are most important, and I tend to find myself doing the ones that stress me out the least. Before I know it, I’ve missed a deadline!”
All of this aside, there are lots of methods to their madness! Ky recommends making an organized spreadsheet of all of your job applications, complete with deadlines. Taking it one day at a time is the most important, and being sure to incorporate breaks and self-care time is the easiest way to not experience too much burnout. For example, if you write one cover letter, be sure to reward yourself with some fresh air, or an episode of your favorite TV show. Or, if breaking the hyperfocus tends to not work out for you, take a full day to rest and recover after a day (or couple of days) of doing some portfolio/internship work.
All-in-all, take care of yourself. Everyone is different, and you know yourself best. If you need a full week off before you can even think of jobs, internships or portfolio pieces, do so without shame! You deserve it! If no one has told you yet, we here at SCAD District are proud of you for getting through another stressful quarter at SCAD. Congratulate yourself, take all the time you need to recover and have a great break!
