KIM KOELMEYER
Deakin students return to university after their mid-semester break this week. But for local law student Perry Waters, it turns out the ‘break’ was not a break at all.
“It’s funny…when people ask me how my break was I always go: “hahaha, what break?” He explained sardonically.
Waters spent what should’ve been a respite from study catching up on lectures and working three days a week at his retail gig. It’s almost like life goes on even when you don’t have class.
“Like, I remember in primary school when we’d have breaks and it would be proper free time. The school holidays just seemed to go on indefinitely with no end in sight. But now, I don’t have class and then work rosters me on for extra shifts.”
Sources have found that the mid-semester break, while intended to be a mini-holiday within an otherwise busy university timetable, has been used by many law students as a padding week to frantically catch up.
When Waters was deciding whether to watch his lecture in week three, he was heard reasoning: “there’s always the mid-sem break!”
Another contributor to this phenomenon is the tendency of law units to have assignments due the first day back from break, which causes many students to use the break as assignment writing time. Because, as we all know, the only time to write an assignment is during the week before it’s due.
“Yeah, both of my law assignments are due in week six. So even if I was up to date with uni I would’ve spent the mid-sem break doing my assignments anyway.” Waters said.
We at Damages Incurred searched for a student who actually used the break as a break and came up empty. More on this as it develops.
