Every college student had to undergo the stressful stages of finals week, including me. It was a long, rough, and difficult journey. The only light at the end of the tunnel was the fact that the holidays were soon approaching. This meant that I could actually sleep for more than two hours each night, eat a warm homecooked meal that did not consist of cereal or instant mac and cheese, and binge-watch the shows that make my heart warm, like The Office.
Here are the 12 stages of finals as told by The Office (aka a comedic phenomenon):
1. Denial.
You begin to think to yourself, "There is no way my teachers are going to expect me to take finals," and laugh at the fact that you actually have to try.
You forget which days and at what times your finals are. You assume that you have at least a week to study when in reality you have to hand in your essay by the dreaded hour of 11:59pm.
You develop this distorted notion in your mind that convinces you that you can go a full week without sleeping and still tell your friends that you can go out.
You do anything and everything else besides studying like dancing around your dorm, sending Snapchats to your friends using the Christmas filters, or if you're like Dwight, playing with some old toys.
You start changing your music styles to songs that will either "pump you up" when you need to keep studying, put you "in your feels" when you seek emotional support while studying, or fuel your anger when you "take the L" on that calculus problem.
You tell yourself it is going to be OK when it is clearly not.
You study with an extra large box of goldfish and then realize that you finished it all in one sitting. Then thirty minutes later, you realize that you do not want to pass out due to malnutrition so you force vegetables down your throat.
You and your friends start spending so much time at the library that you begin to act like the library is your dorm room. You fill your study table with all different kinds of snacks, beverages, and distractions; such as your friend making silly faces at you from across the room.
9. Letting the sleep deprivation get to you.
You drank so much caffeine and slept so little that the sleep deprivation is starting to affect you. You forget to perform basic tasks such as shaving, brushing your hair, and realize that you've been wearing the same pair of sweats for a week. This also causes you to not care at all and make sure that everyone is aware of that.
You continue to wear sweats every day and not care what anyone thinks of you, but then you realize that the dark purple circles under your eyes are now black. You glance in the mirror and scare yourself. It is like it's Halloween again and you are the Grim Reaper.
Even though you continued to deny the fact that finals week was going to be difficult, you tell yourself "you either know it or you don't." You also accept the fact that at this stage in your life, you are a mess.
12. Pride.
You are done with your finals and you are simply proud that you survived. You express this pride to all the haters that saw you crying at the library and doubted you.
