1. Yes! You are finally back!
It’s finally time to be back with all your friends and start going out to parties again. New classes mean a new you. Not to mention you’re now one-semester closer to graduation, hallelujah! You start off thinking you’re going to be more organized, refuse to get anything less than a “B”, and have more fun than any semester before. This is the happiest stage of the fall semester.
2. Classes are starting to get old
“How is it time for a test already, didn’t we just start classes?” Time has officially started to fly. The amount of homework starts piling up and your anxiety slowly starts to increase. You now start your weekly breakdowns, but you know that there is still time to bring your grades up. At this point, there’s still hope that you can achieve the goals you set at the beginning of the semester.
3. You just got your midterm grades back
S.O.S. Now, you don’t know if you should keep trying or just accept whatever the academic gods have in store for you. You may be happy with some grades, unhappy with others, and then some professors don’t even feel like telling you what your midterm grade is. Anxiety is a very real thing, at this stage. Your mental breakdown schedule has increased to at least 3 - 4 times a week. For all those professors that say, “You still have time to bring your grade up,” they’re lying. You may bring it up by 2%, but if you think you’re bringing it up 20% then you must be a gullible freshman.
4. Thanksgiving break here to save the day!
You’ve accepted the outcome of this semester already. Fate has already determined what you will receive for your final grade. Hopefully, you’re happy with it, but most likely you aren’t. No one is ever truly “pleased” with their grade, even the smart kids. The smart ones with A’s on every test even want to get a few points higher, who doesn’t? Your patience is at an absolute low, now. People are starting to frustrate you, the kid who keeps taking your unassigned seat has now drawn the last straw, and your mental stability is questionable. All we need is a little turkey, family time, and football to save ourselves right now. Hopefully, when we come back from break we will be a refreshed student ready for action.
5. Finals = Finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
Anxiety has officially reached an all-time high. Mental breakdowns have increased to 5-8 times a day. You are sleep deprived more than you’ve ever been before. Coffee has become a necessity and your eating habits are absolutely horrifying. You have group projects that nobody in your group has any desire to do. You have three papers due that you haven’t even looked at and 5 exams on top of all of that. Where do you start first? Netflix, obviously. You’re too overwhelmed and think you deserve a mental break, so you sit and watch an episode and tell yourself you’ll finish everything right after. Yeah, right. You’re questioning how you let yourself get to this state at this point in the semester. Next semester you refuse to let this happen again, even though you said that last semester. Calming yourself down every 30 seconds is a must. Just one more week and then you are out of there!! Well, until next semester.
Hopefully reading this article has given you enough time to relax, calm down, and maybe laugh once or twice, so you can get back to studying. Good luck with exams, and may the academic gods forever be on your side.
