It’s that time of year again…
We are now on the other side of Reading Days, and all of the assignments that you shoved aside into the dusty corner of your brain, are starting to become a reality. And these assignments aren’t the typical reading précis, five page papers, or small three chapter exams. No, these are the final presentations, papers and exams that are a whopping 40% of your grade, and they’re giving you a heart attack that prompts you to start cleaning out that dusty and forgotten brain corner.
When you actually open your assignment pad for the first time…
It’s a nightmare— it’s a travesty— it’s so much worse than you thought it would be. Your reading material is double what is usually assigned, then tack on projects, papers and upcoming exams, and you’re basically looking directly into the blinding sunlight. Your week fills out before you, and you come to the conclusion that yes, you’ve screwed up. Yet again. Procrastination is surely the deadliest (or at least most self-destructive) of the sins.
You start to question the cruelty of your professors:
Maybe these due dates and exam dates have been posted since day 1, but they still creep up on you. Surely your professors have some vendetta against you and your mental state. “WHY?!?”, you bawl when you realize that you have already used up the one excused absence on a day when you were just lazy. But no, it’s not your fault you’re not allowed to miss class, it’s the professor’s fault for making class attendance mandatory in the first place.
And you need Sunday Servo EVERY night
All you want is some ravioli with lobster bisque or a nice turkey dinner with some mashed potatoes and stuffing. But no, it’s a Tuesday dinner, so it’s nothing special. And the last thing you need right now, on top of all this stress and anxiety, is normal college food.
And after dinner…
You’re left to your own devices in the wee hours of the morning, either slaving away at your notes or your laptop. You need coffee, you need sleep, you need….pizza. As your eyes strain to focus on the tiny Times New Roman font of your textbooks or boring novels, and your brain aches from trying to interpret what in the heck you are reading, all you can think about is that greasy and cheesy hotness that will fill your body up with pizza heaven. Nothing but the blessings of pizza and/or (preferably and) mozzarella sticks will allow you to keep going further than you have ever imagined your body could power through for.
But most unfortunately, it’s too soon to be able to count down yet.
It’s not even Thanksgiving yet (I know, here’s a tissue and some Advil). The most we can do is count down until finals, but only crazy people would want to count down until something horrendous. So here we are, struggling to fight through this marathon of a journey, falling down over and over again just as JLaw does.
Just power on through…
You may be lacking sleep and experiencing severe bouts of stress and emotional breakdowns, but as you sit down for your final exam for the week or turn in that paper you spent six hours on instead of the recommended weekend, you realize that you did it. You may have face-planted on the way to receive your award (we feel you, Jen!), but have to remember that you will survive. You’ve powered through the plague, procrastination and the pressure of any and all expectations so far, and you will keep on going until break. It will be tough, but I promise you, where Winter Break comes into play, you WILL get there. You can and you will.