Every year, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is inevitably scheduled during your final exam period. You are severely sleep-deprived. Your eyeballs are aching from reading so much and staring at your computer screen writing essays. You have been subsisting on ramen, coffee, and Red Bull. Your skin has become pale from being locked away from civilization in a library cubicle for the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, it seems like all of your friends are frolicking at the Fair Grounds in the sun (and the rain), dancing their hearts out to the world's most incredible live music, sipping Rebirth Pale Ales, and living young and wild and free. And you absolutely hate them for it.
The finals struggle is real, but you are not alone. Here are 11 feelings you had when finals ruined your Jazz Fest:
1. Your FOMO is through the damn roof.
But if you really love your friends, you'll let them go to Jazz Fest in peace.
2. You start freaking out.
Stevie Wonder. Snoop Dogg. Janelle Monáe. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. Ellis and Jason Marsalis. Rebirth Brass Band. Ms. Lauryn Hill. Carlos Vives. Hot 8 Brass Band. Big Freedia. The Soul Rebels. Buddy Guy. Arturo Sandoval.
This year's Jazz Fest has one of the best lineups ever. And you can't even be there.
3. You start to wonder why the gods are throwing shade at your life.
But you know deep down that you can't change god's will.
4. Now comes the self blame stage.
Because you know you must have done SOMETHING to deserve this.
5. You have displaced anger, so you take it out on the people around you.
You're on edge, and not to be trifled with.
6. How you react when you watch all of your friends' Snapchat stories of them having fun at Jazz Fest without you.
When you're trapped in the library, and all of your friends are at Jazz Fest, it's OK to be a jealous hater. This is an extenuating circumstance, and you justifiably feel played.
7. You act like it doesn't bother you, but it's tearing you apart inside.
You pretend that you really don't care. Except you really do care, and you're just in denial.
8. You try to convince yourself that you didn't even really want to go.
So what! It's no big deal. You ain't trippin'.
9. You end up pretending you're at Jazz Fest anyway.
Study break? Solo turn-up session in the library.
10. You realize that its not the end of the world, and that there will be a next time.
Now, things are starting to look up.
11. But you still feel some type of way because you didn't get to go THIS time.
Missing out on Jazz Fest sucks, but you have obligations. Beyoncé said, "Power means happiness; power means hard work and sacrifice." So if you don't trust the process, just trust Queen Bey. It will all be worth it in the end.