5 Ways to Spend Your Extended Winter Break
By Jossie Warnant
USyd has pushed the start of semester two back by three weeks due to COVID-19, taking our usual six week winter break to a total of nine weeks. Whilst you might have planned to spend your winter travelling internationally, completing an internship or working, lots of the plans we made have needed to be ditched due to the pandemic. So, here are five ways that you can make the most of what will be a very long winter break.
1. Travel domestically
Australian businesses are slowly reopening and if the COVID-19 curve remains flat, it is likely we will see further border openings which will allow us to travel around Australia. This is a great time to tick off a couple of places that you’ve had on your list for a while. You could take a road trip up north or explore places like the Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains or regional NSW. The best part is that you won’t have to slog it out on a 24 flight and you’ll be supporting Australian businesses in the process.
2. Use your downtime to up-skill
While in-person internships might be put on hold for a little while longer, the winter break is a great time to up-skill personally or professionally. You might want to do that online PhotoShop course you’ve been meaning to do for years, learn how to code or try your hand at a new language. There are also heaps of online internship opportunities which can help you learn more about the workplace whilst working from home.
3. Get that CV up to date
If you're anything like me, polishing up your CV is something that you often leave until it’s time to apply for a job. But this extended break is a great opportunity to update your resume as well as your LinkedIn page, so that when your dream job comes around you can be an early applicant. If you’re keen to work in a creative field, this is also a great time to create an online portfolio to collate all of your work samples so that they can be easily accessed by potential employers.
4. Get creative
You’ve seen your friends take up new activities during lockdown but probably had too many assignments to get into iso-hobbies. So, now is your time to finally take up a new creative project. Whether it’s baking sourdough, making pottery or learning how to knit, now that semester is finally over you can indulge your creative side without a bunch of assignments hanging over your head.
5. Rest
Sometimes it feels as if we need to fill every hour of every day to be productive. But we’ve just finished one of the most challenging semesters we’ve ever experienced. So, it’s really important to take some time to slow down and reflect on the last few months.