{"id":6870,"date":"2021-11-17T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T14:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6870"},"modified":"2025-06-27T16:07:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T20:07:56","slug":"holiday-perspectives-2021-seasonal-stressors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/11\/17\/holiday-perspectives-2021-seasonal-stressors\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Perspectives: 2021 Seasonal Stressors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The holiday season looks different for every person. Generally, the holiday season is the busiest travel time of the year. According to a recent article in Travel and Leisure Magazine, travel data on Kayak.com predicts December 22 to be this year\u2019s most popular travel day before Christmas.\u00a0 Hayleigh Davis, 18, will be one of those travelers. Her road trip will begin at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Penn., and end in her cozy hometown of Raymond, Maine. Davis is in her first semester at the private university studying medical biology. Like any inexperienced distance driver, Davis is anxious about the solo trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Davis is in her first year studying biology.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not (worried),\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a little nervous, but I\u2019m just trying not to think about it.\u201d Davis shared that she is weary thinking about imminent snow. In Erie, Penn., sporadic snowfall has already started. \u201cI\u2019ve only been on Maine roads in the winter,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how four of the states I have to drive through treat their roads. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re going to be good at it\u2026. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be snowing. There\u2019s just a lot of factors that worry me about it.\u201d The drive takes roughly 11.5 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To make matters more complicated, Davis was unable to get her car\u2019s snow tires put on her vehicle when she visited home in October. \u201cGoing to (Maine),\u201d she said, \u201cI won\u2019t have snow tires. Coming back, I will have snow tires.\u201d While home, her car has an appointment with a local mechanic. Hopeful that she will make it home safely, Davis said she is excited for the holidays. \u201cA lot of travelling,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s rough, but.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Davis\u2019 mother, Bethany-Ann MacKay, is stressed about a different aspect of the holiday season. \u201cI\u2019m nervous about how this holiday season is going to work out,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been doing, with what I\u2019ve been hearing, is picked up and grabbed things that I know I\u2019m going to want as far as food preparations for the holiday meals.\u201d MacKay is referring to global supply chain issues creating scarcity of items and inflation of similar products still available. \u201cThe holidays to me are about spending time with our families,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd being together in that regard more so than everything else.\u201d She said that with this in mind, she has been picking up the essentials for her Thanksgiving dinner whenever she is able to find them at the store.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MacKay has also began thinking ahead and planning for Christmas. \u201cChristmas is going to be a different one for a lot of reasons this year,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, I think that I will again try to plan and prepare the food piece ahead of time so it\u2019s not such a huge expense right at the end. I can pick up pieces along the way and have everything together. The rest of it, I think I\u2019m winging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MacKay said a lot of it is going to be from the heart this year. In December of 2020, MacKay\u2019s mother lost her battle with ovarian cancer three days before Christmas. \u201cThis is going to be a hard year emotionally for our family,\u2019 she said, choking up. \u201cThis year is going to be a really hard one and that\u2019s always at the forefront of my mind. I\u2019m just trying to capture every moment and every bit of happiness with the people that are still here that I can love and hold and see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From the left, MacKay’s daughter Abi, son Daniel, step daughter Maya, and daughter Hayleigh on Christmas morning 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With three adult children, MacKay said gifts this year will be a little different with this mantra in mind. \u201cThe list of four,\u201d she said. \u201cSomething they want, something they need, something they wear and something they read. And that way I can keep it within reason (price-wise) and still make it meaningful.\u201d MacKay said that with inflation in mind, people need to be careful not to overdo their holiday shopping. \u201cIt comes down to tomorrows not promised,\u201d she shared. \u201cYou need to hold on to whose with you and where you\u2019re at today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The holiday season looks different for every person. Generally, the holiday season is the busiest travel time of the year. According to a recent article in Travel and Leisure Magazine, travel data on Kayak.com predicts December 22 to be this year\u2019s most popular travel day before Christmas.\u00a0 Hayleigh Davis, 18, will be one of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8228,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870\/revisions\/8228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}