On the fifth day of Christmas, my professors gave to me: five all-nighters, three mental break downs, two six-page essays, and a final every day of the week!
Most associate December with holiday cheer and spending time with loved ones, but us college students feel more like the Grinch than Buddy the Elf at this time of the year. Here I present to you finals week as told by The Grinch.
Let's start with the week before finals: you know that finals are coming up in just a few short days, but you ignore the dark cloud looming over you and continue to binge watch Netflix. You get a little reminder over your unavoidable sorrow with every e-mail from a professor, who obviously are not in the Christmas mood.
It's getting closer to the end of the week, and you've decided its probably a good idea to begin studying. The late nights in the student center have begun and you're counting down the days till freedom. You've become a complete recluse and your roommate texts you begging to go out.
As the studying continues you realize that you probably should've paid a little more attention this semester. You find yourself really overwhelmed and reach out to a classmate for help, and they send you a study guide. At this moment you're so happy that you could get down on one knee and propose to them, which would be weird considering you've only spoken three words to them over the past few months.
Then there's that one professor who decided it would be fun to assign a paper due during finals week. You can't help but wonder who it was that hurt them to make them want to torture innocent students in this way. You eventually come to the conclusion that they were probably just born evil.
You've accepted defeat and all nighters have become inevitable. Caffeine has become your weapon of choice and the battle has begun. You find yourself in the student center at 4 a.m. and procrastination has become your biggest regret in life.
Your lack of sleep has made you just a bit irritable, and if by some miracle you find time for a mid day nap your roommates know better than to wake you up.
Finals have arrived and you've done everything in your power to prepare. The professor lays the test in front of you and you begin. You thought everything was going fine until you see others turning in the final as you're just beginning the essay portion. You think to yourself, "I knew I should've studied more!"
You power through the rest of the week and once you walk out of your last final you feel like you just won a gold medal in the olympics, regardless of how well you did.
It's here. The day you've been waiting for, you're done with the semester and you go home. You get to experience the warm fuzzies that are supposed to come with the month of December. Everything is right with the world.
