Here we are, finals week. It’s an emotional time. Your limits will be tested, but in retrospect, you’ll be proud of -- and perhaps surprised at -- your perseverance. After all, you’ll make it out alive. In need of a therapist? Perhaps. Or a lecture from your mom about procrastination? Most likely.
1. So close...yet so far
That’s it, no more procrastinating. You literally can’t wait any longer to start the final projects and essays that make the week before finals week so crappy. Every day that you turn something in or do your presentation is another day closer to the end. But it still feels like it’s never going to end. It’s one thing after another, but with everything you hand in, the load hardly feels any lighter, and power naps replace the glory days of full nights of sleep. Patience is the name of the game; remember that you can only take it one step at a time.
2. Fatigued but constantly on-edge
At this point, your diet consists of coffee, energy drinks, and protein bars. Anything else will make you sleepy. But your constant fidgeting leads to anxiety-snacking, and you start rewarding yourself with quick snoozes here and there. Literally...here or there or on the floor or on the toilet or under the desk that you just collapsed away from in defeat.
3. It’s time to be antisocial...but YOLO
It’s not the time to be social, and you know this. You’ve planned for this. But at the same time, is it really gonna matter in a year if you passed this final, as long as you got to hang out with your best buds?...Well it will if you fail the exam which means you fail the class which means you fall short four credits of your degree and you are broke and can’t afford another semester of classes and you have to drop out and you’re doomed to work at fast-food joints the rest of your life!
Woah, chill...it’s not gonna get this bad, folks. But for real, that shopping trip with your girlfriends can wait. It’s for the best.
4. From “I’ve got this” to “C isn’t that bad”
Motivation is a roller coaster and we all just want to get off at this point. The initial positivity of the beginning of the semester has dissipated and you’re now content with letting fate take its course. Sure, you’ll study when there’s time and give your assignments one final push of effort, but all you can do is give it your best shot. You know what you know, and you don’t what you don’t.
5. Planning study time on campus, then falling asleep in the library
You know that if you go home between your morning and evening classes, you’ll just end up pushing away your homework to get to the TV remote, and then it’s Netflix all the way! So plan B: stay on campus and get to work on that paper or practice that presentation in the upper floors of the library...where there are fewer people...and it’s nice and quiet...and that comforting smell of books…*sniff*...is like...sleeping gas...zzzzzzzzz...
OK, WAKE UP! Put on another pot of coffee and break out the big guns -- um, books. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it (because I used all the sugar in my coffee), this week is going to be rough. But time will pass as it always does and you’re probably smarter and more capable than you think you are. Good luck, godspeed, and I’ll see you on the other side.
