Dear Piper,
Why does spring semester always try to kill everyone?
Don´t Die,
Anonymous
Dear What is Spring, Baby don´t Kill Me, Don´t Kill Me, No More,
So every year, spring semester rolls around and we are dreaming of green grass, light course loads and the sun smiling with some cool shades on. But for whatever reason, we are met with. . . Death. Spring semester has a nasty habit of trying to destroy everyone and everything.
But why? What did we do to spring semester? How could we have possibly hurt her that bad?
First off, J-term. If you have taken a J-term (though I don´t know why you would now that it is not free) and go right into spring semester… well, you probably aren’t reading this because you’re already dead. While J-term sounds nice in theory, one month of work for four credits. You gotta realize that´s one month of WORK! For four credits. Then you don’t have time to decompress for spring. So while Hamline tries to say that J-term is setting you up for success, it’s just setting you up for failure for spring.
You gave yourself too much of a break for fall, fam. In the fall, people always want to ease themselves into the school year and choose lighter class loads, don’t work, don’t join groups. Then suddenly when spring term rolls around you realize that you need to get your butt into gear and take those harder classes, get that job and join those groups. You went from being a slacker to an overachieving overachiever in two seconds. Next time, give yourself some harder classes for the fall and join some of those groups. In the fall people want to try, spring they are done and dreaming about spring break and summer break.
All we think about is summer, summer and summer again. This makes it hard to concentrate on current classes and a good portion of those summer thoughts are stress about what are you are going to do over the summer. Are you going to take summer classes, get a summer job or find an internship? It’s even harder if you live out of state and are going home over the summer, because you can’t be there for interviews. While we want to go back to the good ole days of elementary schools when summer meant riding around on our scooters to our best friend’s house, that just isn’t reality. We gotta save up to pay for tuition while working a fulltime job at a waterpark concession stand that we are waaaaay too overqualified for.
As if summer plans don´t have you stressed enough, add figuring out what you are doing in the fall, too. In the spring, you have to plan for fall semester and figure out where you are going to live all year. If you are planning on living off campus, you have to go to apartment showings, find cosigners and roommates that you actually like. Even if you are staying on campus, the housing lottery is also hella stressful.
The weather sucks. Everyone has this great idea of how the sun is going to be wearing those cool shades, and I am planning on wearing rompers and maxi dresses. But unfortunately, Minnesota has other plans. It can snow basically anytime until May. I know someone of you like snow, but in April? The only reason there should be snow in April is if it’s an April Fools Day joke. This gray weather and potential of snow can drain your mood and make it feel like winter will never truly end.
Also cabin fever is real. Fall semester, you were pumped to get back to school and see all of your friends, but now everyone is annoying. You have lost your patience with some of your friends and roommates with the annoying nicknames they have, how they fold laundry, and how they breathe. Since you are so stressed out about everything going on, it’s easy to lash out at people which only fuels everyone’s stress. Try to remember that soon you will be packing up, saying goodbye and going back to missing them.
While we can all agree that spring semester is the worst, we have to remember that summer is almost here and we can get a scooter to ride over to our best friend’s house. The best way to get through spring semester is to plan fun things to do either with friends or on your own, depending on how much cabin fever you got. Don’t forget about self-care. It’s not a reward, it’s something you need. You can also try to help a friend out because we are all facing the doom of spring semester together.
Sincerely,
Patricia Piper
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