Wellness Wednesday: The Mid-Week Break We Deserve (Mocktower)

Wishing for the three-day weekend is so last semester. Instead, what students really need is something more radical, more healing—a mid-week break. A day to take a breath, reset, and remind ourselves we are functioning human beings and not just caffeine-powered homework machines.  

Monday through Friday, students push themselves to their limits. We attend class, meet deadlines, show up to work, and somehow have to find time to eat, sleep, and maintain a social life. By Tuesday night, the only thing keeping us upright is the distant promise of the weekend. This will not do. This is not living. The solution: give us Wednesday. 

Yes, we have the weekend. But, the weekend is already booked—church, laundry, catching up on assignments, meeting friends, cleaning that mysterious substance in the back of the refrigerator. The weekend is not entirely restful. The weekend is really just unpaid work in pajamas. What students need is a naturally placed day in the middle of the week that contains no obligations.   

Picture the perfect Wellness Wednesday. You sleep in without having to wake up to a blaring alarm after having dreams of acing all your exams. All of your assignments are done for the next day. The weather is perfect. You walk to the cafeteria and have time to enjoy your breakfast instead of almost choking from eating too quickly before class. You have so much time on your hands and your friend just asked you to hang out. It’s the perfect start to your day. You have time to do some errands, make your favorite lunch, watch a movie or read a book, and there is still time to spend on whatever you want. You spend the rest of the day doing things that you don’t have time for during your stressful, high speed academic week. The day ends with you climbing into bed early, rested and ready to conquer the last half of the week. 

Now imagine what this does for the campus as a whole. Professors, equally rested, return to Thursday’s classes refreshed and perhaps feeling generous about that deadline extension you desperately needed. Students show up energized, engaged, and willing to participate without extra credit being teased. The campus culture shifts from survival mode to something that actually resembles thriving. 

Wellness Wednesday is not a luxury—it is a necessity. This day in the middle of the week to regain energy and motivation is what our campus needs to maintain campus culture. A mid-week reset built into the calendar would improve mental health, academic performance, and the general will to continue existing as a student. Looking at Union as the example, other institutions will follow. History will be changed for the better from this practice being put into place. 

Give us Wednesday. We have earned it. We are so tired. 

By Brooklyn Wishard