This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tulane chapter.
It’s crazy how quickly first semester flew by. It feels like only a few weeks ago that I was moving into my dorm room for sophomore year, and now we officially have three full weeks of class left. If you’re feeling how I’m feeling, that news had you shook. Processing it is, well, a process.
- Stage One: Disbelief. We cannot possibly be that close to finals, right? Wasn’t it just midterms?
- Stage Two: Stress. The semester is almost over, and my shit is not together. There’s so much to do and no time to do it. Once the realization sets in, there is no banishing the dark cloud hanging over your head, consisting of everything you still need to take care of before the end of the semester.
- Stage Three: Power Mode. It’s time to wake up, smell the coffee, and get down to business. This is the stage where you camp out in the library, coffee shop, or anywhere else that lets you work uninterrupted for a very long time. It’s crunch time, and the focus gets real.
- Stage Four: Giving Up. The focus is starting to crack. You’re supposed to be studying, but you can’t stop watching Tasty videos. You decide to abandon any semblance of productivity and crawl into bed with wine and sweatpants, ready to watch Netflix until your brain melts. You will cry to anyone who will listen, including but not limited to friends/parents/roommates/baristas/bartenders. Basically, things are getting ugly.
- Acceptance: You’ve survived the semester so far. It will all be okay. The final stage of realizing how close we are to the finish line for first semester is also about remembering that you got this. Cheesy as it may be, you have the potential to get it done and you will!This semester flew by, and realizing how close it is to being over definitely caught me unawares. But as stressful as it may be, it’s important to take a step back in all the chaos and remember that it will all be fine.