After countless days and weeks spent studying––and unfortunately cramming––for the eight finals, four papers, and the group project all due last week, finals are finally over, which means you can now breathe, and more importantly, celebrate!

Each semester does not just come with the stresses of classes and assignments, but also those of work, relationships, and life. Personally, the past two semesters have had major setbacks that diminished my happiness. In the Fall, I came into a lot of unexpected bills that made me have to cut back on my spending for a couple months. And this past semester I lost my job and went through a month-long bout of depression and anxiety while I tried to figure out my next step.

When the Fall semester ended, I immediately began picking up extra shifts at work to save up for my upcoming summer course tuition bills. I never took the time to celebrate my accomplishments because I didn't think it was important.

Since then, I have learned to celebrate smaller moments in my life to keep me motivated to do more. It was the only way to get me through everything that was going on, at the time I was training at my new job all-day, every day, for a week, while at the same time worrying about my papers and midterms that were happening the following week.

By the end of the semester, I felt like I should have felt beat. But by celebrating the small accomplishments that led me there, rather than focusing on the negative parts that did, I felt a sense of refreshment, oddly.

With this refreshed attitude of mine, I am ready to take the time I need to celebrate myself for accomplishing another successful semester. And it's important that you do too!

Now that I'm free of school stresses, I have the time to reorganize my life and get everything back on track. I can go out for drinks and dinner with my friends who I haven't seen for a while. And I'm free to try new things every day (as long as I don't have work) that make me feel happy to be where I am in life.

I'm constantly telling my close friends how happy I have been feeling lately, in spite of everything negative that's happened over the past few months. It is truly a strange feeling, but I do believe that the positivity linked to celebrating small victories daily is what made it happen.

So I encourage you to go out and find a reason to celebrate yourself for accomplishing another hard semester. And go into your next one with a brighter perspective and outlook. I'm really enjoying this high in my life, and I can only hope it lasts for the rest of my life.