Finals season is rolling around—and you know what that means.
Finding a spot in Shannon is impossible; the caffeine intake triples, and the hours of rest each night dwindle. It is around this time every year that, in the whirlwind of study sessions, exams, and semester burnout, we drive ourselves crazy trying to hold it all together.
These are the moments when Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” holds the most weight.
Oliver’s heartfelt poem serves as the reminder we all need during finals season to pause, take a deep breath, and ground ourselves when everything feels overwhelming.
1. “You Do not Have to be good.”
If you remember one message from this article, let it be this one.
Take this as a lesson that not only gets you through finals season, but also as a lifelong reminder for every overwhelming moment that follows.
College teaches us to measure our self-worth by how well we perform quantitatively—how “good” we are at retaining a semester’s worth of material, applying our knowledge, and pushing through when the work gets tough and the nights get longer. But Mary Oliver challenges that entire, harmful mindset in seven simple words. You do not have to be good. You don’t need to live up to every expectation or strive for perfection.
This powerful line reassures us that your GPA does not determine your goodness or the effort you put in, nor does it dictate how proud you can be of yourself for finishing the semester.
2. “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
Unfortunately, for most UVA students, self-care is the first item knocked off the priority list during finals season. Before you know it, your body is running on a couple of hours of sleep, sporadic meals, and restricted minutes of rest. In this line, Oliver positions the body and its tenderness as something to be protected with care, regardless of the other responsibilities you’re being called towards.
In our terms, this “soft animal” can mean many things.
- Taking a real break (that includes physically and mentally)
- Going on a walk
- Treating yourself to a warm meal
- Giving your mind a moment of quiet
- Taking that much-needed nap when your body could use it most
- Calling someone who feels grounding (family member, friend, or mentor)
In short: give your body a permanent spot on the daily to-do list, rather than relegating it to an afterthought.
3. “Meanwhile, the world goes on.”
Take this as a reminder: contrary to popular belief, life does, in fact, exist outside the walls of UVA. So, even if on Grounds it feels like your Cell Bio exam is the entire universe, the rest of the world is still moving. As Oliver notes, the birds are migrating, the sun is rising and setting, and the seasons are changing.
So, if you are taking the trek to the library, where you plan to camp out for the entire day, take a moment to notice the world as it exists around you before you lock in. Appreciate the little bits of nature that help remind you that you are much bigger than the grade you get on a final exam.
Don’t get me wrong, your stress is valid. That said, it is beneficial to remind yourself that finals are a temporary instance, not a defining characteristic.
4. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely…the world offers itself to your imagination.”
In case the overcrowded libraries and collective crashing out weren’t a clear indicator: you are not the only one battling finals season. That said, college has this weird way of still feeling isolating even when you’re surrounded by hundreds of students who also likely haven’t slept well in days. It’s natural to feel major imposter syndrome, feel disconnected, or convinced that no one else is as overwhelmed as you are.
Oliver’s line here functions as the remedy to those feelings. Sure, finals season may chip away at your sleeping hours, your sanity, and your patience, but one thing is for sure: it can’t take away the natural beauty that exists in the world. Instead, it all depends on whether you take a moment to notice it.
5. “The wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.”
Whether you interpret this line poetically or lyrically, let it remind you that home is in the near future. By the time finals season arrives, most people are already deeply burnt out. Every day becomes a countdown until your last assignment is submitted, until you can sleep in your own bed, and until you can finally take a genuine break.
There is something so calming about Oliver’s depiction of the geese flying home. While your nose is buried deep in textbooks and Canvas pages, the geese continue to migrate with a slow and deliberate pace that is unbothered by human chaos. By no means are they moving quickly, yet their steady soar brings them exactly where they need to be.
You are doing the same. Even if it feels like you’re not maximizing your productivity, checking enough items off the list, or retaining the information fast enough, you, too, are moving toward something lighter. Soon you will have space to breathe, rest, and recover in whatever way you need.
So take this line as a promise. Take it day by day, and eventually you will make it home.