So here we are: The home stretch. Students are in a frenzy registering for their next semester of classes, fourth years are beginning to mourn the inescapable end of their college career, and first years feel as if they finally know what they are doing. After a semester of extracurricular commitments, demanding classes, and sleep deprivation, everyone is all but holding their breath for Thanksgiving break, a much needed moment of reprieve, or, more aptly, the calm before the storm. After a long weekend of family, friends, and festivities, there is hardly a week left of classes before the beginning of finals week.
Now, both my older sisters attended UVA and I remember hearing their “finals week horror stories” of eating only crackers for meals or falling asleep in the library only to wake up and study more. So with my first round of finals approaching, I have promised myself to follow a few simple guidelines to stay sane:
1. Use Thanksgiving Break to Play Catch Up
It is almost too easy to justify totally relaxing over break—sleeping in late, going to bed early, and wiling away the day doing nothing in complete contentment. But with papers and exams hanging over your head for the following week, use just a couple of hours a day (maybe with the exception of Turkey Day itself), and look over powerpoint reviews and books you may have forgotten from the first week of the semester.
2. Eat Properly
As self-explanatory as this one is, it needs reminding. The fact is, surviving on Pringles during finals week is not going to benefit anyone. Your grumbling stomach will distract you from your Econ textbook and the crumbs will inevitably fall into your laptop keyboard. Take a twenty minute break to eat a meal, pack some fruit for a snack, and then hit the books again. You’ll thank yourself later.
3. Talk to People
Remember that everyone is in the same boat as you are, and even though everybody is studying, it isn’t a crime to take a break to have some human contact. Reading textbooks for hours on end isn’t the best way to keep your brain intact and study groups are another realm of stress. Maybe during that twenty minute lunch break or walking home from Clemons at night you can catch up with a friend—even if you only complain to each other. And that brings me to:
4. Don’t Sleep in the Library
Just because Clemons is open for 24 hours, does not mean you should be there for 24 hours. Go home, get a good night’s sleep, and come back in the morning. Nothing will make you hate your life more than waking up with your textbook for a pillow. It’s just not worth it
5. Breathe.
This paper does not define you, this test will not break you; it is only one grade in one class in one semester in one year of college.
Stay Sane and Push Through.