My fellow college students,

The nasty season of stress, mental breakdowns, and week-long all-nighters is upon us yet again. Yep, I'm talking about Exam Season.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst.

With papers upon papers upon tests upon tests and presentations upon presentations upon Christmas shopping...when will we ever find time to sleep?

Oh, yeah. We won't.

Exam time is when you realize that you have no idea what you're doing with your life as you sit, crying in the laundry room at 2 a.m. while you try your absolute hardest to scrape together a report from a Wikipedia page, praying your citations are at least halfway correct.

Exam time tests all students; it separates the weak from the strong, the half-assers from the dedicated, the sane from the crazy. The struggle of exams can be rough, but it also builds strong individuals.

Pressing yourself against the clock nearly always asks for a small, nagging ulcer to form in the pit of your stomach but, for some people, this pressure really creates a laser-sharp focus that helps you push through.

Some of us flourish under the final grinding of the clock's gears, cranking out amazing essays and cramming an insane amount of information into our brains at the last minute. Some of us use exam time as an excuse to do the things, unrelated to our studies, that we've been putting off all semester (i.e. having that three-hour long phone call with grandma, washing all of your laundry, washing your roommate's laundry, browsing Peruvian cookbooks on Amazon.) Some of us are actually productive in the weeks before even Reading Day rolls around and, by the time Hell Week approaches, we are already cruising into the break.

Then, of course, there are those of us that get so overwhelmed that we just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling, trying to find the motivation to move.

Regardless of which student has found this letter between their hands, jittery with the caffeinated jitters that can only mean the end of the semester is nigh, I will give you one piece of advice: do not panic.

While you may be feeling busier and more overwhelmed than you have all semester, just remember that this is only a small part of your college experience. When you find yourself awake at 3 AM, locked away in the library for another sleepless night of cramming and cursing yourself for procrastinating, think of all of the fun times that you have had over the past few weeks.

Remember the nights you spent with your roommates, whether that included going out to parties or staying in to watch cheesy Rom-Coms in your PJs. Remember the fun trips that you took over the weekends, going shopping with your best friends and buying that one outfit that made you look so great or that one appliance you never thought you'd be able to purchase for yourself. Remember the late nights that you have spent doing absolutely nothing, enjoying the company of others and laughing until you cried.

Instead of focusing on the negatives of all the stress that you are feeling right now, focus on the positives of the happiness that you have felt in the months leading up to this moment and the months that lay ahead. It's only one week, you can do this.

Until next semester,

The Stressed, but Optimistic College Student