Fall is upon us! The air is getting cooler, sweater weather is right around the corner, and I’ve already had way too many Pumpkin Spice Lattes than what should be socially acceptable (note: get a hot one with oat milk. It will change your life). With the beautiful leaves now colored and fun fall festivities present every weekend, I can say that fall is easily my favorite season. But, with fall comes another time of year in every college kid’s semester – midterms.
Ah, yes. Midterms. Late nights in the library, last-minute cramming sessions, quizlets and flashcards, 10-page papers and projects to name a few of midterm requirements. It is definitely one of the most stressful and frustrating times during the fall semester, and it is coming in hard this year specifically. For a lot of us, these are some of the first in-person tests we’ve had to take since early 2020, which adds an extra level of anxiety on top of the normal amount that comes around this time of year.
During the past few weeks, I have had to study all over campus, and it can be incredibly hard to focus when you’re sitting in a busy Starbucks or outside of the dining hall. To help me, I’ve turned to one of my favorite coping activities – I made a Spotify playlist.
I love to make Spotify playlists perfectly curated to fit a certain mood or memory. So when this fall rolled around, I knew I needed to make a playlist that would give me those cozy fall feelings and would also help me to stay concentrated while I studied. And, because of the stressful times we are in, I also wanted to make sure the playlist was filled with calming songs and would help me relax while I did my work. After working on it for a few weeks, I believe I have mastered the perfect fall time playlist to play while writing that midterm paper and memorizing those vocabulary words. So, without further ado, here is a glimpse of that playlist: Fall Academia.
- Just Like Autumn by Jordy Searcy, Carly Bannister, and The Tuesday Crew
- Halloween by Novo Amor
- Willow by Taylor Swift
- Warm Glow by Hippo Campus
- A Weekend at the Governors Ball by Jakob Leventhal
- Woodland by The Paper Kites
- Autumn’s Song by Stephen Day
- We fell in love in october by girl in red
- Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
- Conversations with Ghosts by Bear’s Den
There’s a sneak peek of the playlist! It has a fun mix of fall/autumn/Halloween themed indie songs, but also has some songs from artists I love and songs that give me that comfy warm feeling that comes with fall. If you want to check out the entire playlist, you can do so here! I hope it helps you to study or inspires you to create your own playlist. Happy fall and happy midterms :)