Semesters have wrapped up, GPAs have been calculated. Consequently, stress levels are high. For anyone who experienced the agony of finals week, or the apprehension of exams in general, it's important to keep perspective.
Sleep, for instance, is important. For anyone in crunch time before an exam, it may seem superfluous. However, the benefits of sleep include a long list that most people have heard before. All-nighters are not an ingredient for good health. I don't care how many papers my professors assign or how hard my exams are; I'll work my a** off, but I will not turn into a student zombie getting three hours of sleep per night.
Also, food. If you've ever skipped a meal to cover another chapter in your textbook, you know the feeling of true panic for an exam. However, stress shouldn't take away the enjoyable things in life; namely, eating. I don't care what the page requirement is for a paper; I'm not skipping dinner.
Health should always be a top priority; however, even if the general population believes that health is more important than GPA, it often isn't carried out in practice. It may sound easy to take time to exercise, de-stress, and eat a banana or two.
Unfortunately, these things often fall to the bottom of the to-do list during finals for many students. Neglecting health for school is unbalanced, at best.
It also can be hard to acknowledge and appreciate family when you're stressed. Nevertheless, it's important. Haven't there been enough romantic comedies to show the world that family is more important than work and financial success?
Similar to family, friendships are very important; obviously, you shouldn't be going out with friends every night before finals week, and you shouldn't spend every minute of the day socializing.
However, if a friend is having a hard day and needs emotional support, I believe it's reasonable to take time away from the textbooks to comfort them.
In general, it's good to be a nice person. Having a stressful week doesn't give anyone the right to be rude, impatient or generally an a**hole. Unfortunately, the pressure to do well in school can be so high that students lash out at the people close to them. Not to mention, anyone that's worked in customer service has probably had a stressed-out customer lash out irrationally.
For this reason, I consider being a more relaxed, conscientious person worth giving up the few hours of studying that would have otherwise emotionally exhausted me.
Finally, the letters that appear on a transcript can be a mark of either success or defeat, particularly for "Type A" students. It's easy for ambitious students to see a number between 0 and 4 as a determination of their worth; however, this is both unhealthy and untrue.
It is important to remember that grades do not determine a person's value, and healthy self-esteem is more important than GPA. If you've had a bad semester, don't beat yourself up about it.
As a professor once told me: there are many roads to happiness in life, and they don't all include a 4.0.
