Before I started university, March was my absolute favourite month of all time: my birthday, March Break, St. Patrick’s Day, and sometimes Easter. March was a month of vacation, relaxation, and best of all, tons of days off school. All of this excitement changed during my first year of university when I realized the March is actually the worst time for almost every student.
1. Applications
For some reason, all of the due dates for the majority of on campus jobs, volunteer positions, and other hiring seem to happen all on the second week of March. First of all, most of these positions don’t even start until Fall 2016, meaning we’re expected to know what we want to do in 5 months. Meanwhile, most of us don’t know what we want to do for dinner. Information sessions, application due dates, and interviews (whether it’s one round or multiple) all seem to be happening at the same time, making for a busier than usual schedule and loads of extra work. But make sure to check them out because these are great opportunities!
2. Midterms and Assignments
Sure, March isn’t considered mid-term, but apparently it seems to be a very popular month for assignments, presentations, papers, and midterm exams. If you’re unlucky enough to have March midterms, it usually means you have much more content to study, and likely much less time to study it. Even worse, you might be scheduled for a midterm or presentation on our favourite alcoholiday, St.Patrick’s Day. If you’ve got a March birthday, there’s a really good chance you’ll be spending it studying (so sorry).
3. Weather
March seems to have two common weather patterns: rainy, disgusting, stay-in-bed-all-day winter, and beautiful, sunny, it’s-almost-summer spring weather. On those cold, rainy days, there’s no feeling better than spending the entire day in bed forgetting about school, as if we needed any more convincing not to get out of bed. As for those wonderful sunny days, they remind us of summer and how close it is, causing us to lose whatever motivation we have left to keep working.
4. Money
It’s the end of the semester and you’re just now realizing how poorly you’ve budgeted yourself for the entire school year. Most of us are running on the very tail end of our school budgets, just waiting for our tax returns to come back and to start our summer jobs. Usually, this means we’ve got to buckle down our wallets and spend the rest of the semester living off coffee, KD, and soup. Don’t even remind us that we still have to pay for St. Paddy’s day tickets, drinks, and our outfits.
5. Daylight Savings
Did you forget about Daylight Savings Time? Don’t worry, most of us did. Of all months of the year, March is probably the one that we’d like an extra hour added to our lives, but unfortunately for everyone we lose an hour of sleep, making that 8:30 lecture actually feel like 7:30. Good luck.
As much as March may be completely horrendous, it’s one month closer to summer, something we can all look forward to! Endure the miserable weather, the tedious assignments, your empty wallet, and the loss of your oh so precious sleeping time, and in just 31 days it’ll be all over.