It is that dreadful time of the year currently. Yes, I am talking about dead week, finals week, one of the following two weeks that I just mentioned for college students. For men, as I write this article, it is currently dead week and I am trying to survive all of the final projects that I have to do as well as study for my upcoming exams that I will have to take.

However, these weeks have taken away something that I always look forward to. That is my holiday spirit.

When December hits, it is normally the time when I feel happy because it is almost a required feeling for me to feel happy during this month as Christmas is my favorite holiday. I get to be with my family, I get to reflect on the year that it was, and it normally is just a time I feel happy. But since starting college, it has been difficult lately. With the beginning of the month being chaotic as we are given numerous assignments to finish out the semester, and to add on we have projects and papers as well. So for the past two years, it has been a struggle to feel like I'm ready to have a holly jolly Christmas.

Recently, whenever the holiday season comes around, specifically when November first hits, I would be listening to a number of Christmas music on repeat. Then after Thanksgiving, that is when I would watch holiday movies. But since going to college I have had to cut down on the holiday movies. One night, I got a text from my mom that 'Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer' was on. I wanted to watch it so bad, but I was at an important meeting that I could not miss. It sucked because Rudolph is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies and to not be able to watch when it's on really made me feel down.

I've been trying to make some pushes to not worry much about school and projects and to keep my spirit up. I was involved in a secret Santa with the flicc section in marching band and after that, we watched 'A Year Without Santa Clause" and 'White Christmas.' While it was fun to be around my friends and celebrate a small Christmas and being lucky that I have them as my friends, I was still lost in the usual holiday spirit I had when growing up.

It's really never fun when all that is on your mind is making sure that you get the grade that you want in that one class and perfecting that final project that could be the make it or break it part of if you pass or fail a certain class.

But I know that once finals week is over, I will be heading home, sleeping on my bed until December 20th, and spending the last five days before Christmas trying to be as festive as I can be.