I think all of us are familiar with the frustration, sleep deprivation, and unending to-do list that comes with the end of the school year. The struggle of finals week is well documented: memes, listicles, vines, and YouTube videos galore. However, a part of the end of the year that is largely looked over is the week before finals. (A place I find myself currently.) So, in a fitting case of procrastination on a paper whose word requirement is unspeakable, here are the reasons that the week before finals is actually worse than finals:
1. Class
This may seem obvious, but it apparently is not to the professors who assign papers and projects due this week. Do you need to stay up all night completing that paper? Do you still need to go to your 8 A.M. class? Yes, you do; because the week before finals is the worst.
2. No one takes your complaining seriously
Due to the notoriety of finals week, there is a certain respect for students going through finals week. This does not exist the week before finals. Instead of sympathetic glances and encouraging words, complaining about the week before finals rarely results in sympathy. (I have been testing this theory all week -- so trust me on this one.)3. You are expected to function
People expect very little from you during finals, and when they do the expectations are similar to those placed on an infant. College students may walk around campus wearing food-stained clothes, crying on occasion, and function on an unpredictable sleep schedule, but for one week a year this is acceptable and even to be expected. However, when I show up to class the week before finals wearing the T-shirt I slept in for the past two days with circles under my eyes and hair that I think may be stuck in this messy bun forever, I am surrounded by people who showered today. The horror...
4. All of your extracurriculars wrap up this week
Along with class and assignments, all of the other things you thought were a good idea to get involved in earlier in the year when you were young and dumb and idealistic have to be completed. Have fun sitting through your orchestra concert, student government, and chapter meeting as deadlines tick closer by the minute.
5. Another year is almost over.
Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. The realization that your friends are graduating and that you're another year closer to having to face the real world tends to hit people like a bus this time of year.
For everything that is frustrating about college there are infinitely more things that make it great. Coming to the end of the year you are forced to realize that this heavenly place where the focus of your existence is on growing as a person can't last forever, and that the end is constantly approaching. So enjoy the end of the year, as difficult as that may be, and relish the times you'll spend with the people who are your life right now.
