A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of taking a two week long cruise around Japan. Before the trip, I was so excited since I would be missing school while traveling the world through many people’s dream vacation locations with my family. And while I had an amazing time while I was there, I had no idea how difficult it would be when I got back. 

Everyone knows that if you miss three weeks of school, you’re obviously going to have an abundance of work you missed waiting for you when you get home, that’s a given. But what most students and their parents don’t think about when they’re planning these types of mid-school-year trips is the amount of stress they’ll be under for weeks following their return. 

Although I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to travel to such far places at such a young age, I did not expect to be up to my shoulders in schoolwork the second the plane touched down. I didn’t even have time to adjust to the time zone before I was thrown into my make-up work process.

I knew coming back to school and catching up would be hard, but it was one of those things where I didn’t really understand the gravity of the situation until it was actively happening with me. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to catch up on the assignments that I missed when I also missed when the rest of my peers were learning the material.

Despite the fact that I’ve been back for a month, there are some things that I’m only now able to make up since I’ve been relearning everything. And in addition to the work I missed when I was gone, the classwork everyone else is doing currently doesn’t go away. So not only do I need to learn what I initially wasn’t there to, but I also need to keep up with everything else. 

Additionally, making up for attendance is extremely difficult. I was at school for less than 90% of the time, and according to Texas state law, that’s a big no no. 

But this many absences led to me needing to make up hours I missed by staying after school for tutorials and having teachers log my hours for me, and it’s a huge hassle that determines whether or not I get credit for the classes I missed this grading period. 

Extracurricular activities on top of school work and attendance makeups are also incredibly stressful. I missed a lot of important rehearsals for something I was involved in at the time, and when I got back, it had to be one of my top priorities in addition to my grades to figure out everything I missed. 

Coming back from an exciting trip and having everything thrown at you before you’ve regained consciousness is not for the faint of heart. It’s incredibly hard on students, and it’s hard on teachers as well.

It’s a teacher’s job to help the student stay on track for success during the school year, and having to work with students one on one to figure out make-up test dates and alternate assignments can be difficult and incredibly time consuming. 

I don’t regret going on the trip in the slightest. It was an incredible experience, and an opportunity that most people my age don’t get. However I do wish I had put more thought before I left into how coming back would affect me. It’s incredibly important for students in this kind of situation to have a good support system. From their teachers, their parents, their friends, and really anyone who can help them work through the amount of stress it is to make a comeback from missing that much class time.