It’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing beautiful colors, the temperature is almost perfect, and of course, midterms are in the forecast. Every single time, midterm season has this way of creeping on students. Exams can start as early as September or as late as November, and can last around a month for some and a week for others. It can be said that this time calls for an interesting combination of emotions…
The Initial Content Stage
You read through the syllabus and see that there will be a midterm in two weeks. “Two weeks? I’ve got time.” You tell yourself you will do the readings as they are assigned, and you continue on with your other pressing work.
Anxiety
A few days down the line you realize that the midterm is getting closer. You freak out a little because you haven’t been keeping up with the readings. So you sit in the library with all of the books in front of you, staring into space.
Denial
You cannot seem to accept the fact that your midterm is in a week. In your eyes, it’s still the first week of school. “I can drop the class if I need to…”
Anger
“How could I let myself do this? I promised myself I would do all the readings!” You beat yourself up over the fact that you set yourself up for failure. You even bought all the books. But they just have been sitting on your desk, collecting dust…
Panic
The realization hits that you won’t be able to do all the work and complete the readings in time. You try looking for chapter summaries online, but to no avail. You get to the opinion that nothing can be done at that point, and it finally just hits. There quite possibly could be a crying fit in the dungeon of the library, but not quite mental breakdown status, yet.
Desperation
At this point, you turn to other students in the class. You most likely are not friends with these people, but you’re just so desperate that you’re willing to make friends. You try to set up a study group, but in the end you know you’re just being selfish and looking out for yourself.
Acceptance
Heading into the exam, you think to yourself that if you fail, you fail. Not everyone is perfect, right?
Relief
Phew! That exam was the hardest exam you have ever taken, but IT’S DONE. You can finally close out of all those Microsoft Word documents and Internet tabs. Did someone say party time?
Depression
The exam is over, the relief stage is over, so that just means that your emotions are just as prevalent as before. Netflix is there for you. You plan on eating your feelings and binge watching your favorite show just to hide your depression. But no matter what, you’ll still cry yourself to sleep over this exam.
Celebration
The grades are posted on LATTE…and you aced it! You’re more capable than you know.