As classes wind down, cumbersome amounts of papers are due, study guides are everywhere and the lives of college students become crazier than ever, sometimes one needs the help of Middle Earth to truly describe the chaos finals week brings. Tears will be shed, hair will be pulled, and eyes will be taped open all in order to secure the success of our grades and ultimately our future (plays "Concerning Hobbits" in the background). Being a huge Lord of the Rings fan I can easily draw similarities between my quest for a good GPA and Frodo's journey to Mordor. With daunting tasks, cruel enemies and the fellowship of your peers to pull you through, finals week starts to look more and more like the LOTR plot. So here is a rendition of the last few weeks of college as told by J.R.R. Tolkien.

It all starts off with your Prof. asking you to recall some ridiculous information from the beginning of the semester to which you have to search the depths of your brain to find.

It's as if sometimes you feel like your Profs might as well say:

Sometimes your Prof. decides to call on you to answer the one question you didn't brush up on, and in that moment you wish you had the ring to allow you to evaporate from sight!

When you ask your Prof. if there will be any extra credit opportunities, they usually respond somewhat like Bilbo Baggins:

When the people in your study group try to dip out early:

When you are trying to solve a multi-variable equation and think you finally found the right answer...but then you remember you already tried that...

If spell check could talk while you type one of those early AM essays it would probably scream the pronunciations at you like Sam and his potatoes:

Then when you submit your paper online a minute after the deadline, your screen seems to be staring back at you like:

When your prof decides to make the final cumulative:

Eventually after hours of studying you come to the horrific realization that you are only one lesson in:

Then when you start to plan out your second all nighter you realize there is mostly only cons to your plan:

However, our generation is very lucky to have Google as a study buddy. Apparently even Gandalf can see that.

And who could forget those dark, cold and scary walks home from the library at 2 am.

No crazy finals week would be complete without that one entitled classmate reminding the Prof. when assignments are due, making sure to announce that he/ she has completed the study guide first and always spewing a mountain of obnoxious questions to litter the hour with.

There also always comes a point in time when your friend who can see you're worried about your exam asks if you have completed and reviewed the study guide (which in their eyes is an effort to show you you can't possibly fail...), this gesture usually receives this Bilbo Baggins reply:

When your mom asks you how many hours of sleep you have had in the last two days, you reply in a small withered voice:

Before the exam you give your best friend the old shoulder slap of confidence and bid them good luck as they approach the battlefield:

Once the exam is passed out it feels like your Prof. turns into the all seeing eye of Sauron. Seriously how can they sit and stare for two hours...

Then you realize the five page exam is double sided and you almost fall off your horse:

As time goes by you eerily eye the clock to see how many minutes you have until your fate is sealed forever:

Suddenly there is two minutes left and you realize you haven't even started bubbling in your Scantron yet:

However, you take a deep breath, focus in, and challenge that final as if it where the mighty Balrog himself:

Then once it is all over you can look up to the heavens and thank the earth and sun that all the tests, papers and projects are finally OVER:

Now you can go home, relax and eat some raspberry tarts in the shire! You earned it!