Finals week is hell if I'm being completely honest. Yes, it differs from person to person, major to major. But I think we can all agree that it's rough. I've been there: exhausted, stressed and feeling completely mentally fried. You feel like you don't have time to blink let alone shower, eat right or socialize with friends. As an English major, I don't have many traditional exams, but I'm swamped with 10 plus page papers and creative daunting presentations the entire week. It drains you - but don't let it drain you completely.

Your health is more important than the grade you get on your Biochemistry final or coding project. If college kids aren't careful, this stress can do a number on our bodies and minds. I've seen this happen first hand with my friends, my sister, and most obviously myself. Sometimes I go a day without eating and other times I binge because I don't want to forget again. I fill my body with Starbucks DoubleShot energy drinks instead of getting much needed sleep. I stare at the computer screen and textbooks pages instead of giving myself a moment of relaxation. Sometimes I think it's all worth it because I ended up doing really well on a paper I turned in. Other times I'm hit with the harsh reality that it wasn't worth the lack of sleep, dehydration and missing out.

We must learn to balance. Too much of anything can take its toll. If you don't know whether you're "over studying", just replace studying with how many times you go out. If this starts to paint an ugly picture than you may be studying way too much. I know that some people are going to read this and say I'm ridiculous. They'll say that there isn't a thing as too much studying and that sometimes it's worth missing out on events or friends because they can make up for that in the future. The problem with that logic is that we're living right now, not in ten years from now.

In high school, I busted my butt off trying to get the best grades, be involved in the most clubs and have a ridiculous amount of community service hours. I did it, but at what cost to my social and mental health? My junior and senior years of high school were a blur not because I had so much fun but because they weren't very eventful. Cut to college and I don't recognize the student I've become. My grades are important to me but so are my relationships and social activities. Instead of studying all day or locking myself in my room doing homework, I mark out time and then go and enjoy myself and my friends. I look back at my high school career and now understand how I could have enjoyed it more if I just put down the textbook for a moment.

Don't spend four years with your nose in a book or face to a screen. Because one day you're gonna wake up and realize that you spent more time studying life and less time actually living. I don't mean to scare anyone or send them into a mid-life crisis. But wake up. You work ethnic now will be your work ethic in the future. You can't keep pushing off living until you reach some distant milestone. So close the textbook. Shut the laptop screen. Get out of that chair you've sunk yourself into and clear away your notes. Pick up the phone and call some of your friends. Take the break you deserve and cut yourself some lack. Because if you don't you might end up losing yourself and studying your life away.