With school starting at break-neck speed, everyone is questioning whether we even had a summer break this year. Some had stressful summers that included extensive jobs and lengthy trips. What could possibly ruin getting paid and enjoying vacations? That’s right: summer assignments.

“It was hard having to put aside the fun stuff and switch my brain over to the homework,” a junior at Wilsonville High School, Kayla Leon-Guerrero, admits. Guerrero went on a three week long trip to Guam this summer, and she recalls the struggle of having to put away time from her summer to do two assignments instead of visiting extended family and learning about new cultures.

Elizabeth Kness, a fellow Wilsonville senior, was in a similar predicament. During the school year, Kness works for her barn and takes care of the horses as soon as she gets out of school. But during the summer, those turn into 10-12 hour days, five times a week. “It was hard balancing everything out,” Kness confessed, “especially when I would spend so much time at the barn, that it was even harder to find time for homework when I was finished.”

From a very short summer, busy weekdays, and lots of assignments, this most recent break felt more like a couple weeks rather than a couple months. The students I talked with mentioned that they would rather have the long assignments and extend the break rather than shortened assignments with the short break. If your time was limited, which one would you choose?