One minute you’re living it up with your friends by your side and the next… darkness takes over. Bank accounts run dry, libraries become crowded and filled with fright. Books and PowerPoints of lecture notes take over desks everywhere, leaving under-prepared students breaking down left and right.

The time has come. Welcome to finals week.

You wonder to yourself, where has the time gone? Wasn’t Halloweekend just a few weeks ago? How did it already become the dreaded second week of December? Panic takes over the Quad as campus becomes flooded with cries for help. Students are found clicking away on their laptops into all hours of the night. “I just can’t do this!” a distorted voice shrieks across the dinning center. I’m here to tell you, yes you crying dude with the quesadilla, you can.

Things will be okay. I know you might feel like you just got hit by those five text books that have been sitting in the back of your car since midterms— but you will survive this. Look up from the laptop you’ve been staring at for the last 6 hours, just for a second. Breathe in, breathe out— better?

You have worked so hard to get from where you were, to where you are now. Remember when you chose the school you would be attending for the next four or five years? You were so excited to see what the road ahead will lead to. You are on that road now. You picked a major-- you picked a few majors-- but you finally found the one that fits you. You may have a slight vision of yourself walking across that stage with a diploma in your hand. You might even have a vision of yourself ruling the world in whatever career path you have chosen. You want this degree, and you will get it.

I know the path to your future seems a little blurry right now. I know you feel like if you have to write one more 25 page paper on the analysis of some random organization’s strategic plan you might explode. You won’t though. If you give up, where will you be? Do you really want to keep saying, “How did you find everything today?” for the rest of your life stuck in the fitting rooms of your retail job? Hit the books— you’ll get out of there.

You have the ability to chase whatever dream you wish for. Keep typing, keep reading over those PowerPoints and walk into you 50 question final with confidence. Study hard, don’t leave it all to the last possible second. Avoid those “I can’t handle this" breakdowns.

Grab that trenta vanilla latte, meet up with your friends in the liberty and get yourselves studying. The future is a lot brighter with good people by your side. Motivate each other in the arms of success. Studying is hard, writing papers is hard and thinking about your future is even harder but you will walk that stage. You will get you degree and you will make something out of yourself. Wipe away your tears, crying quesadilla boy-- you can do this.