An NPC deputy (人大代表) during this year’s two sessions suggested dividing the winter and summer vacations into four shorter vacations. Though it seems helpful, the proposal is out of the realities.

Firstly, the deputy believed that shorter vacations could alleviate (缓解) parents’ burden of caring for their children at home and offer families more opportunities to travel together. However, the general consensus (共识) is that most parents are often so busy trying to make enough money to provide for their children’s education and household costs that they don’t even have enough time to keep their kids company, let alone to be able to take their kids on vacation.

Secondly, each of the breaks will only last for about three weeks. Even though this is generally a long enough time for students to go to tutoring centers (培训机构) if their parents pay extra attention to their children’s studies, they may end up finding themselves continuously having to shift between a busy school term and a more relaxed period of time off. While this may help to prevent children from playing with their mobile phones or video games, is it really necessary to create new term system (体系) to do so? As the saying goes, “Penny wise and pound foolish.”

Moreover, as some netizens have mentioned, the main purpose of winter and summer vacations is to give students more time to celebrate the Spring Festival and to escape the summer heat. Not only do longer vacations spare many students the efforts of travelling from home to school, but they also offer chances for them to do things with long-lasting positive effects, such as volunteering in the community or joining in overseas exchanges.

In a word, there is still a long way to go to improve the vacation system before a better option turns up. So what we students need to do for now is just make the best of our vacation time and prepare ourselves for the future terms.

“Farm to table” is the name of a movement that encourages people to eat locally grown food. The farm-to-table idea has become more popular in recent years. But there is also a movement that brings “table to farm”. Its purpose is to connect people to the land and to honor local farmers by creating a sort of restaurant without walls.

Its founder, Jim Denevan, got the idea for this kind of “culinary adventure (美食探险)”, as he called it, ten years ago. He recently prepared tables for more than a hundred people at Briars Farm in Virginia. He and his eight-member team arrived the night before. Chefs (厨师) from a local restaurant prepared the dinner.

Jim Denevan’s brother is a farmer and he himself is a chef. He thought that the idea of a meal served right on the farm made sense, though not everyone agreed.

“But I wanted to make the idea work, so I decided to cross the country，” said Denevan. “I went all the way across the United States and set the table on farms, ranches (大牧场) and beaches, and all the places where food came from.”

“This kind of event connects us with a lot of enthusiastic people, people that we can form relationships with,” said Matt Szechenyi, who operates Briars Farm.

The tour of the farm ends at the dinner table. The meats in the meal come from Matt Szechenyi’s farm.

The vegetables come from nearby farms. Guests and local farmers sit together.

Annoica Ingram came with a friend. “The food is wonderful. I appreciate their hard work. I see everything they have to do to take care of the animals and make sure they are well-cared-for. Without them, I think, we’ll have big problems,” she said.

When Benjamin was in eighth grade, he quit the swim team. “I’m not Michael Phelps, why am I even on the team?” he said.

A US therapist who researches perfectionism at Northwestern University realized years later what had happened. Benjamin’s perfectionism was creating unrealistic standards. Unable to meet them, he quit.

“My perfectionism prompted high expectations, and that caused real suffering,” Benjamin said. He is not alone in feeling that perfectionism can lead to anxiety. So many millennials (千禧一代) suffer from the ills of perfectionism that psychologists are issuing warnings and schools are emphasizing the need to accept failure.

Northwestern has held meetings that offered tips on how students could deal with a perfectionism problem. Jessica, leading the events and researches, said every generation is a sponge for the messages it receives. “Millennials, more than any other generation in American society, are receiving clear messages around achieving, ” she said. “There’s an absence of messaging that trying your hardest is still OK.”

The American Psychological Association also found that recent generations of college students have reported higher levels of perfectionism than earlier generations. This “desire to achieve along with being overly critical of oneself and others” affects young people’s mental health, according to research data from over 40, 000 college students.

Researchers noted that social media adds comparative pressure, along with the drive to earn money and achieve career goals. Perfectionists often create unrealistic goals, which can lead to a higher risk of failure.

In college, Benjamin found himself surrounded by so many intelligent people that he felt he should have been achieving a higher level than he was. “It makes you feel kind of crazy,” he said.

This type of thinking can lead to people putting in less effort, which, as they fall behind, can create more anxiety. “It makes people feel kind of isolated. And that,” Benjamin added, “can cause students to drift away from their school.”