As an architecture student, I am too familiar with the stresses of finishing projects for class, because almost all of our classes rely on projects that demonstrate concepts, instead of written assignments or tests. While this may sound like a great alternative to late-night cramming for exams, that’s not always the case.

Endless hours. Instead of relying on a set time period for studying, we force our creative process into the hours outside of class time and extra-curricular activities and normal life functions, just hoping for a successful end product. The result is often sacrificing lots of time to perfecting details and concepts for our projects. Whenever some wonders where an architecture student is at any given time, the answer is probably “in studio."

Craziness. While working long hours on projects, we tend to get a little loopy. Staring endlessly at a computer screen or pad of paper strains the eyes and the brain. Before you know it, there are ugly Snapchats flying and talk of ditching school to live on parents’ couches forever. But the allure of the profession draws us back in every time. So forgive us when we can’t form coherent thoughts after twiddling with line widths on Illustrator for hours on end.

Coffee, Caffeine, and Coca-Cola are the C’s of survival. I can honestly say that I’m becoming friends with the employees at Dunkin Donuts and know exactly what my total will be for any “usual” order. However, the really smart “archies” keep a Keurig machine in the studio for convenience.

Presentation time. It's also known as the time when caffeine-hangovers are masked by a polite smile and outfit picked out by roommates who had more than three hours of sleep in the past three nights. We stand next to the masterpieces and silently pray that there are no mistypes in the titles that were added a mere few hours ago. The second prayer is that the Q&A section won't require too much intense thinking, because, lack of sleep.

The recovery. As soon as the presentation is done, it takes a few minutes to fully accept that the project is done and completed. Then it's immediately time to begin making up for all lost sleep, until you realize that there are four other classes that were neglected while this project was in progress.

Here's to hoping for successful midterm project completion, fellow archies and students.