I know that I’m taking the unpopular opinion here. Nobody wants to admit they don’t support taking a break during the seemingly interminable weeks of October.

But before you sharpen your pitchforks and light your torches, let’s look at this delicate issue more realistically: You can’t squeeze a week’s vacation into the fall semester without real consequences.

And the biggest consequence is the academic calendar. Yes, that frustratingly inflexible timeline which dictates when students should be attending classes.

Overall, when considering the calendar without any misdirected prejudice or animosity, most can agree that it successfully balances vacation time and school work.

ASU officials know they cannot maintain an impossibly rigorous academic pace. Accordingly, they spread the breaks throughout the year as generously as possible.

And the first consequence of a fall break is the cramped summer and winter schedules.

Like many students trying to fulfill useless graduation requirements, I have enrolled in both summer and winter sessions. I personally understand the need for intermissions between the rising and falling of the academic curtain.

Establishing a fall break means sucking away precious vacation time from an already parched academic schedule.

The winter session has only four days between the holiday (read: Christmas) vacation and the first day, and five days between the last day and the start of the spring semester.

The summer schedule is even less accommodating — it consists of two five-week sessions sandwiching an extremely small vacation.

This “vacation” between the first and second sessions for the upcoming academic calendar is only three days, which is embarrassingly short.

And because these three days include a weekend, students technically only receive one day of emancipation, giving them just enough time to feel sorry for themselves before the next session.

Honestly, there is only room for one weeklong vacation in the academic schedule without suffocating the students enrolled in summer and winter classes or subtracting valuable vacation time.

And there are legitimate reasons why that break is in the spring rather than the fall.

First, most college students would probably agree that fall vacation prospects are much less exciting than spring prospects. Lounging beachside in a swimsuit sounds much more appealing than picking pumpkins in sweatpants.

Second, the spring semester technically receives fewer federally-observed holidays than the fall. The fall semester has three holidays for four days off, while the spring only has two holidays for two days off.

A fall break would unreasonably offset the distribution of vacation days between both semesters. This counterbalance would burden many fall semester classes, especially those scheduled on Monday and Wednesday, which must already accommodate Labor Day and Veterans Day.

Third, and most importantly, the feelings of frustration and emptiness you’re experiencing this semester are nothing compared to those you will experience next semester.

During a time when a majority of students are graduating and many of whom are completing thesis projects, spring break is a necessary and welcome vacation.

The spring semester burnout that spreads across campus like a California wildfire makes this fall semester burnout seem like a sputtering Bunsen burner flame.

We should consider vacation days as hoarded food for the winter. Instead of stuffing ourselves whenever we’re stressed or overwhelmed, we should stockpile them in anticipation of those desperate and less prosperous times.

That’s the only way we’ll truly survive.

Reach David at david.k.edwards.1@asu.edu.