Finals week is upon us, and for some of us it has already come and gone. As my freshman year of college comes to a close, I have survived two finals weeks (barely). I have seen that both of these finals weeks had five stages.

Denial. The safest defense mechanism out there. The fact that another semester has come and gone slaps us all in the face. No matter how long the semester seems to have been, it was only about 15 weeks. In reality, those weeks flew by. All of them containing valuable lessons, that we wished we had paid more attention to. And then finals week comes and slaps us in the face, and we all ultimately want to deny the fact that it is a real thing. Because if we don't talk about it, it's not real right?I

Annd then there is regret. Lots and lots of regret. The fact that we have all procrastinated until the very last minute is finally starting to hit us. That resolution that we made at the beginning of the semester to "prepare for finals early" has gone unachieved. And we are starting to regret that fact. But hey, finals week is just that, only a week. We will survive no matter how dead our brains may feel.

Acceptance. We have finally realized that we just have to accept and understand that finals week is a real thing. By this point, we have all finally realized that finals week is not going away. No mater how much we deny or try to avoid it (more regret). But with acceptance comes motivation and that can go a long way in the studying department. After this, we all will finally get a well deserved break. All the Instagram posts, tweets, yaks, Facebook statuses, and snapchats can wait until later. They will be there at the end of finals, I promise.

Okay, so we have finally accepted the fact that finals are real, and then we panic. We panic, a lot. Basically a week long panic attack will occur. We realize those three extra points on that quiz could of really helped us out. Then we start reviewing and see words we did not even know existed. But at the end of the day, honestly we all are in the same boat. We are all just as stressed out and panicked as the next college student. Just take a deep breath. You've made it through another semester and that is something to be proud of.

Then finally, Finals Week (aka Hell Week) is over. Yes, you may have to have a memorial ceremony for your GPA but that's okay. You've made it through a hard semester, and now a break is well deserved. Make sure you enjoy your break, it will fly by.