Once upon a time I was a freshman in college and all of a sudden it got really tough. My list of to-dos starting adding up, and I didn’t think I could possibly finish all of it. Two tests, a paper, a quiz and a group project all in one week. How is that even allowed? And, on top of that, you have at least two club meetings you really need to go to. Might as well say goodbye to sleep for a week. I’d never even heard the term “hell week” before I came to college, but now it has a very real and terrifying meaning to me.

The first time I made it through a “hell week” I thought it was a one-time thing. Boy was I mistaken. Turns out, weeks like these happen roughly three to four times per semester. As if college students don’t regularly have enough on their plate, why not devote one singular week to have every single important test, paper, and project due. That seems fair right?

Now I’m into my third year in college and coming up on my very first “hell week” of junior year. How very exciting. However, this time around I feel a little less stressed about it. After going through it roughly twelve times now (not including finals weeks of course) I’ve learned that there’s really no reason to be overly stressed about it because there is honestly nothing extra you can do to prepare yourself.

When a week like this comes along, especially as a first-year college student, it is scary. Just looking at the sheer amount of very important things you have to do in a week’s time is scary. But the thing you have to realize is that it’s just one week. It’s just one test, one quiz, one paper. It’s not deciding factor on whether you’re going to be successful in life. There is no reason to create more stress than is naturally going to occur. Everything is going to be okay.

As a student the only thing we can do is try, and hopefully try our best. As long as you put forth effort into studying, writing those papers, and finishing those projects, what else can you really do? There’s no point in stressing over how the teacher is going to word the test questions or what if the teacher doesn’t like the title of your paper. There’s just no point. The sooner you learn not to sweat the little things, the sooner you will start to relax and let some of that unnecessary stress go.

There’s always going to be a “hell week” (or three, or four). Unfortunately, you can’t change that fact. What you can change is how you look at it. There’s no reason to worry about the things you can’t change, all you should worry about is taking care of yourself. In the end that’s all you can control in life anyway.