An armory robbery in Worcester. The Paris attacks. Revelations about Father Mulledy’s not-so-savory past. Donald Trump’s Worcester visit. Graduation being moved off-campus. Senior Ball. The baseball initiation. Jeb Bush said he would kill baby Hitler. Exams. AND on top of all that, Starbucks takes away our pre-Thanksgiving red-cup related joy.

We live in a world with air that is filled with computer-code, social media apps, YouTube videos, clickable headlines, news clip links, iMessage bubbles, and good old-fashioned human chatter. All this can be a lot for some people to handle at the best of times, but this week, the air seemed especially thick. At first I thought that it would be easy, that the world around us wouldn’t distract me from the dreaded academic weight of the Week Before Thanksgiving. It was only some Starbucks cups and Jeb Bush answering some bizarre questions. Nothing I couldn’t freak out about later, when I was home and had time to actually get some Starbucks. Then the world heard about the tragic terrorist attacks that hit Paris on Friday, and the world stopped and stood in solidarity and outrage.

On Sunday, in the aftermath of the attacks, the residents of Worcester, MA were informed that the Army Reserve Armory had been robbed. Weapons had been taken and everyone was afraid. Then, we started classes on Monday, and everyone started talking, and there was Senior Ball, Donald Trump, Graduation, Father Mulledy’s shady past, the baseball initiation, and of course, exams. I seemed to be constantly wading through new information as it came flooding in. I checked the news, I checked social media, I talked to my friends. I was constantly hearing something new and scandalizing on some level. My brain got fuzzy. I drank some coffee. And I trudged on through the muck of constant information, always searching for an update, a new angle, a break in a case.

This kind of week can be unrelenting and especially long. There seems to always be something more coming, until it all piles up together. It's weeks like this where balance becomes extremely important. When everything piles up it becomes vital to know what you can put aside and deal with later, and what needs focus during an exact moment. It becomes important to know that gossip isn’t as important as exams and that spending time reading up on something like the Paris attacks or following the Worcester robbery probably deserves more attention than the questions Jeb Bush is answering.

Balance is also important because it tells you when to step away. When the week is long, there’s always something going on and information is flying around in and outside your head, it’s okay to take a deep breath, tell yourself that you need a break, and go take a nap. Balance means being able to deal with weeks like this. It means knowing what to focus on and when to let your focus slip, it means finding that sweet spot between being in the loop, and having a handle on your grades. Balance means that in a media overload week like this one was, you can stop, take a breath, get a grasp on where you stand in the midst of all the swirling information.