In the fourth week of January, after an exceptionally long five-day weekend, every student at Granite Bay High School is granted one of the greatest gifts in education. The chance to start over. A clean slate of academia.

The renewal and refreshment of the spring season - well, that just happens to come in the middle of January for the grizzlies.

Being on the block schedule, every student, after clearing the last round of first semester finals hurdle, gets a new class schedule. That means new teachers. That means new classmates. That means, to the relief of many students, new grades.

Although you receive a prediction of what you're spring schedule will be in the fall, it is still a delight and surprise to walk through new classroom doors. The magic of the first day of school is recreated.

There are both critics and supporters of the semester and block school system. And undoubtedly, it offers educational benefits and surely a few detriments.

But the semester switch in January reveals one very important advantage.

It's simple: unity.

Every teacher and every student can heave a collective sigh of relief at the notion of new classes and faces. There is an understood and communal sense of accomplishment at the end of the first semester.

The idea of everyone experiencing the thing brings a very important blanket of unity.

It's the same idea as every high school senior battling some degree of senioritis. And the junior class having to endure rounds of standardized testing. And the sophomores, who are collectively giddy at the prospect of being upperclassmen in a semester. And the freshmen, who are still all adjusting to the world of high school.

What makes challenges bearable is when we can endure them with other people. And what makes accomplishments more memorable is when we can celebrate them with neighbors.

So the fact that every single student and employee of Granite Bay High School is experiencing the phenomena of the semester switch makes it a monumental occurrence.

In high school (and I'm sure in the real world too, but I don't have any authority in speaking about that quite yet) it seems like everyone is always running in a million directions.

Football practices. Yearbook deadlines. Tutoring. Group projects.

It seems that when we all slip into our niches, we lose some of the unity of being a collective campus. We're busy being busy.

The semester change in January gives students the chance to start over; and with that, comes the chance for the school to come together in this blossoming.

And while it's a stretch to apply typical Valentine's Day mantras to a high school setting, it's not unfair to request a kind of celebration of unity in the wake of this romantic holiday.

We'll all be walking out of school with a cleared grade book and a new set of textbooks - and that's almost more appealing than chocolates and roses.