Freshman year is such a wonderful time to be alive.

Your biggest concern was most likely determining how long it would take for you to get to class without driving because your parents wouldn’t let you take your car up for the first year. Your biggest accomplishments included not getting your fake ID taken from you, rushing Greek life, or getting rid of the lanyard you used as a key chain.   

It seems that freshman year lacks any kind of worry in the world, right?   

Wrong. Did you forget about your very first finals week?

As a freshman, this is a week of hell. You get through the entire semester of your lower level English and computer fluency courses and you think you’re done. But, you’re really not. You have finals. And finals are a whole new world of pain. The stress adds up until you think you can’t handle it anymore, and you begin to wonder how long it would take your parents to find out if you dropped out of school.     

The four most popular questions every freshman asks themselves during finals week: 

1)   “How is it even legal for this evil teacher to assign a cumulative final?” 

2)   “Will I make it out alive? 

3)   "Why me?"

4)   "God, are you there?"      

Freshmen have no idea what is going on during finals week, or how to handle it. We’ve all gone through it, and we all know the pain these tests bring us. Countless hours in the library, enough caffeine to sustain multiple all-nighters, fighting the urge to check social media every thirty seconds because you’ve somehow logically convinced yourself that it’s acceptable to take a phone break every thirty seconds… 

Suddenly, you’ve realized you haven’t eaten in two days. Somehow, coffee is the only nutrient you need, and your body accepts that. “Must. Order. Jimmy. Johns,” you murmur; your friends looking at you wide-eyed, nodding in agreement, as if to say “you do what you have to do, soldier.” 

The library is your battlefield, your friends the allies, your books – the enemy.   

As you walk up to your last exam at 7:30 a.m. with about 0.5 hours of sleep under your belt, a sense of hope crawls through your mind: “I’ve studied enough. I actually know this stuff. I think… I think I can do it!” Your teacher hands out the test; you quickly realize that you’ve been using the wrong study guide for the past 48 hours. You may or may not be crying hysterically in the fetal position, refusing to talk to anyone but your mother. But it’s finals week, and you’re a freshman, and that’s that.  

Finals week as a senior goes a little differently…   

The most popular question every senior asks himself/herself during finals week: 

1)   What is the minimum number of points I need to keep my C?   

You laugh at the thought of studying, and the only stress you’re going through is the fact that you’re a senior and it’s your last year in college. 

Suddenly, you wish you were that confused freshman all over again.   But then you remember all that studying… And actually caring about finals… And… Nah.