It’s finals week. We don’t expect to get a lot of sleep, but we expect a lot of coffee, studying, and music. In which case, I recommend Hamilton. The Hamilton Broadway Musical came out in 2015 and was written based on an Alexander Hamilton Biography by Ron Chernow. Lin-Manuel Miranda has earned 11 Tony Awards and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Hamilton. Now is the time that we might earn A’s because of these lines in Hamilton.
1. Alexander Hamilton - “Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned / Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain / Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain / And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain”
This is for the time where we check our grades and realize they are not to par and we have to start taking everything about college serious, but also rant about it on various social media sites, because finals week feelings are #relatable.
2. Helpless – “Boy you got me helpless”
This lyric describes the time when we look at our first final exam question and realize that there was so much more to study than what we did. Those Netflix binges you had a night and a half ago aren’t going to help you on your Calculus final, as much as you wish they would.
3. Wait for It – “We laugh and we cry and we break / And we make our mistakes”
This is just the entirety of finals season. This is how we feel, and hopefully, we don’t cry, break and make mistakes as much as we laugh. Laughing is good medicine, but laughing through finals week can either be actual happiness or hysterical.
4. Non-Stop – “Why do you write like you’re running out of time? / Write day and night like you’re running out of time?”
Timed essays on exams are by far the worst part of an exam, whether you have to write a paragraph for an open-ended question or a five-paragraph essay. The only way to finish those writing sections is trying to answer the questions if they get pre-released prior to the exam and memorize those answer.
5. Take a Break – “Take a break / I am on my way / There’s a little surprise before supper and it cannot wait / I’ll be there in a minute, save my plate”
This is all we want during finals week. We want a break and to go home and enjoy a meal made by mom. Rushing home after finals is the best feeling. We can make it through finals. I believe in us.
6. Washington on Your Side – “Try not to crack under the stress, we’re breaking down like fractions”
This is just self-explanatory. We are doing our best to keep our sanity, and in doing so, we lose sleep and drink too much Starbucks.
7. One Last Time – “One last time, let’s take a break tonight / And then we’ll teach ‘em how to say goodbye”
During studying, we have to remember to take study breaks so our brains don’t explode. And after those exams, we’ll be able to say goodbye to that semester-long class along with those lectures that make no sense.
8. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story – “Have I done enough? / Will they tell your story? / Oh, I can’t wait to see you again / It’s only a matter of time”
After all the finals are done, hopefully, we’ve done enough. The semester ends and we get to go home and tell our stories to our families. I can’t wait to see my friends again, but heading home is the only thing on my mind right now.
