It is my first day after my first semester finals are over, and man I could not be happier. Now that classes are officially over for myself, and that they will soon be over for many other students, I thought to myself about all of the emotions I felt over the last three weeks, all of the things I had to do over the last three weeks and all of the hair I pulled out in front of my computer in preparation for finals week!
1 - Denial
I think I speak for every college student that denial is one of the most common felt emotions ahead of finals week. We are all still in normal school mode, completing assignments as they come, BUT, finals are looming overhead. We all know they are there, but we just pretend they do not exist until we accept the reality that we HAVE to study and HAVE to take the finals, whether we like it or not. But hey, what is one more episode of Stranger Things before that, right?
2 - Boredom
Now that we all actually started studying for finals, the inevitable boredom sets in. Studying for finals is some of the most mind-numbing work that anyone can do because it is essentially a crash course of everything you have learned in the class over the last 4 months or so. We all had to sit down, more or less read the entire textbook, and rework all the problems over the semester just to make sure we actually retained some of the information. In my case, it was hard not to fall asleep!
3 - Procrastination
Now, this may only apply to the laziest or the most unorganized of the bunch, but procrastination is a mistress that simply cannot be avoided. We all have our laptops open with endless tabs set to all of our favorite studying websites, but all of the sudden our minds start to wander... We all see our favorites bar, and YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and Facebook are all open in a matter of seconds before we even realize what we are doing. Then, before we know it, an hour and a half has gone by, it's midnight, and we have done next to no studying for the night! Oh well, there is always tomorrow...
4 - Panic
Tomorrow then turns into a nightmare, as all of the studying has piled up into one horrible mess that is just sitting there staring at us. The final is tomorrow, and we are all panicking because we feel like we have not learned anything! Some people end up pulling all-nighters, others end up studying all day until they fall asleep at their computers, and others simply hope for the best right then and there. However, one thing is the same for all students; there are many prayers being sent that night, and everyone is hoping their prayers are heard!
5 - Success!
The final is over! We did it! The semester is over and I get to go home! Finishing a final is a feeling like no other, because it is finally the end of all the endless studying, panicking, and stressing that we have been under for weeks. For some people, finals went exactly as they thought and they go home with a great GPA. For others, sadly, that is not the case, and the break is a little melancholy with the lower-than0expected GPA hanging over their heads. In any case, hanging the professor your people full of calculus problems and theoretical essays is a feeling that everyone loves to have, because the semester is finally over, and we all get our much deserved break.
