Questions You’ll Be Asked Over the Break (and How to Answer Them)

Thanksgiving break can be a challenging time. Being home is great, but you’re extended family is here also. As much as we love them, they love to throw a barrage of questions at us to get an update on our lives. It’s only because they care about us. It’s also annoying. When asked one of the standard questions, you have options to your response.

How’s school going?

Perhaps the vaguest question you’ll be asked, and perhaps one that demands the most follow-up questions. To this specific question, just say “good.” That’s probably all anyone ever says. With the occasional, “school sucks, why do we have to learn things and get knowledge?” You’re basically pigeonholed into an easy one word answer. In most cases, the relative who’s asking doesn’t actually want to know how school is going. They just want to think that you’re doing okay. So tell them that.

How are your grades?

I would say this is the most popular follow up question. Relatives want to know your academic standing, hoping that you’re doing well. You say “they’re fine” or “they’re good.” This may be true, but thanks to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, we have the wonderful gift of lying. If you’re grades are bad, nobody in your family has to know because it’s none of their business. Thank you legal system, for allowing us to lie to our prying aunts if the necessity arises.

Have you chosen a major/ what is it?

This question differs with year in school. Freshmen and sophomores will be asked if they’ve chosen a major, and if they haven’t all the relative has done is reopened the internal dialogue of “What am I going to major in? I need to define my interests; what am I interested in? What am I going to do with the rest of my life? I DON’T KNOW WHO I AM!!” As they’re thinking all this the Undeclared majors just shrug and say “I don’t know yet, I’ll figure it out.” If you’re a junior or senior, you’ve probably told your family your major plenty of times. They’ve either forgotten, or you’ve changed it quite a bit. No matter what year of school you’re in, this is a question loaded with judgment. Once you confess to your major, be ready for the relative you’re conversing with to give their opinion on your major and your future plans as if you asked for their input. “You know the place you’ve chosen to focus your academic attention because it’s what’s interesting to you in the entire world of knowledge, and therefore fundamentally a part of who you are as a person? That’s not lucrative enough; you should change it.”

What are your plans after you graduate?

Personally, I think this is an awful question to ask someone who isn’t a senior, and maybe you shouldn’t even then. Everyone who know the answer: good for you for having your life together. Everyone who doesn’t: I feel you, dawg. Many of us are at a loss as to how to respond to this question. If you want to stop people from asking you again, just say “Well, I’ll probably die at some point.”

Are you dating anyone?

Even if you were able to answer all the prior questions with ease, this one might throw you for a loop. For everyone who’s in a relationship, congratulations! You can skip this section if you want. If you’re single, heed my words. Usually the person who asks this question is of the widespread mindset that those of us in relationships are by default happier than those miserable, depressed, lonely un-dateables out there. A variety of alternatives are true. Maybe it’s not a priority in your life right now. Maybe you need to spend some time defining yourself outside of a relationship, or whatever nonsense you say right before you dump someone. These are statements to consider when preparing for the possible follow-up question of “why not?” You can always be honest with the family member, usually you won’t be judged too much. If you’re like me, it’s always fun to say something like “I think I have… five girlfriends right now,” then fake count on your fingers, mumbling names in your head, “yeah, five.”

These are only the four most popular questions, you may be asked a plethora of others, including but not limited to: