As the semester is winding down, you get excited for the upcoming breaks, but also stressed because you realize finals are soon. The end of the semester is a big roller coaster of emotions. One minute you are on a high of happiness and the next you are crying from all the things you need to do. You can never find that happy medium. If your semester has been anything like mine, you know even finding a second to relax is hard to come by.

You dream of a time when you got more than five hours of sleep and had time to have a decent meal that cost more than $2 from the Wendy’s value menu. Thanksgiving break is right around the corner. All you have to do is finish a few more projects, go to a couple meetings and you will be on your way to stuff your face with home cooked food. Since it is the first big break since you went to school, you want to see and do everything while you are home.

Breaks are nice because you get a chance to relax with family and forget about school for a little bit. Unfortunately, for Thanksgiving break, you still have to come back to school and face the wrath of finals.

All semester you have been blocking out finals and basically pretending like they don’t exist. I know I have! The saying, “If I don’t think about them, then I can pretend they aren’t actually real,” has probably popped into your head multiple times. You are back from break and it’s time to get cracking on studying, but procrastinate as much as possible. Doing anything you can think of to put off studying. You even clean your place because at this point anything beats studying.

You have reached the home stretch. Soon you will be kicking back at home for a whole month of relaxing. But don’t get too ahead of yourself. Everyone gets those end of semester blues. Everyone gets a little cranky because they are stressed to the max. You find focusing just gets harder as the semester nears the end. The week leading up to finals is so thrilling because your classes that you’ve been dreading all semester are finally oer, but also terrifying because that means finals are in a week. Panic mode starts to set in. You try to stay calm as long as possible, but everyone knows that every finals week is not complete without an anxiety attack or two.

Finals. Finals. Finals. The week has finally arrived and all hell has broken lose. Trying to keep yourself together, you tell yourself that you have made it this far so this week has nothing on you. The first exam is always the hardest because that’s when you realize the week is actually happening. You can’t put it off anymore. Your body is running on no sleep and way too much caffeine, but you stand tall, ready to take on the week. At this point, it doesn’t matter what you are wearing. Most of your stuff is packed because you got a little too excited that in less than a week you would be sleeping in your own bed.

Finals week is coming to an end and the sheer joy that you feel cannot be contained. You did it: you survived the semester. Now all that’s left is to head home and enjoy this lovely long break you have been waiting for all semester. Nothing is on your mind besides the sweet sound of…well nothing because let's face it you’ll probably be sleeping most of break.

Fall semester: check. Now time to kick back and relax until you have to experience this all over again come spring, but lets think about that another day. For now you are a rock star.