Classes resumed after spring break, and I was unpleasantly surprised by the number of empty seats in my classroom. I wasn’t too shocked about this in my early morning class. Most of the time, when students miss this class, I chalk it up to the fact that they forgot to set their alarm or are so hungover that they slept through their wake-up call. I get it. You want to squeeze in that last party or late-night bender before you have to act studious again. I do the same thing, just with a little more responsibility, a.k.a. there is no alcohol in my diet Coke.

When my second class began, it was more of the same. I barely had half of my students sitting ready to learn. Out of mild disgust, I asked where everybody was if they weren’t here learning. Students responded that some of their peers took an extra day or two to return. This strategy is something that never dawned on me as a student. Why should I worry about all this money I am spending on education when I can take a few extra days off? What would I truly miss anyway? I guess I have this horrible affliction called obligations that hinder me from having such thoughts.

Upon returning to my office, I had a plethora of emails from students informing me that they were either sick, experiencing transportation problems, or simply weren’t returning until they felt like it. I do my best to stay patient with my students. I remember that I am not twenty years old anymore and that they don’t have the same grasp on reality as I do. Sometimes, it is difficult for me not to reply to emails with the most snarky things that come to mind. I would love to compose an email like this:

“I am sorry to hear that you are stuck in Florida right now. Steer clear of any moving logs with eyes and don’t trust anybody who has a smile that reminds you of a crossword puzzle.”

However, I think my chair would disapprove of my conduct if I decided to speak freely to my students. I do try my best to be honest with my students, but I don’t think they would be ready for complete honesty coming from me. I also don’t want to lose my job.

This isn’t my first rodeo regarding this sort of thing. During my time at Remus College, we had a horrible time with students taking extended vacations whenever breaks would roll around. Spring break was bad enough. Students would start leaving the Wednesday prior and not return until the Wednesday after, making it a two-week vacation. However, the worst time of year was Thanksgiving. It was common for students to leave the week before and not return until finals. The students took three weeks off before returning to take exams or wrap up projects. It was always a weird time, as some of my classes only had a quarter of the roster present during the final days of the semester. It almost felt like the end of Survivor or Squid Games whenever we reached this point in the semester.

The problem got so bad that the school finally decided to get off its duff and changed the academic calendar so that finals would wrap up before Thanksgiving. That way, once the students left for home, they didn’t have to return until after New Year’s Day. It did curtail a lot of the shenanigans, but some students still didn’t think much about missing chunks of class for whatever reason. I just hope this isn’t a growing trend at my new institution. I don’t need to suffer from those flashbacks.