You've survived the last breath of winter and spring is finally here — aka March Madness has finally arrived. Maybe your fan level is sub par? Maybe you have been waiting for this day since the first of the season? Regardless of your basketball knowledge, we all travel this grim and insane road together.

Stage 1: Fascination

There's research to be read and predictions to be matched. Your bracket app opens and hits you like the first flowers of spring. This is living.

Stage 2: Giddy Anticipation

You feel like a kid waiting to see the Thanksgiving day feast. Tensions and trash talk run high amongst your bracket group and you're already planning what you will do with Warren Buffett's million dollars. Will there be upsets? Is your Cinderella team going to take it all? Will this finally be your year?

Stage 3: Initial Excitement

In the first stage of "the highs and lows," you are overcome with pure joy. Three games in your bracket is solid, you flawlessly called every 5 v 12 and 4 v 13, and you're feeling a bit like a psychic after predicting the first buzzer-beater upset. Every time ESPN sends out a perfect bracket percentage, you scoff at the idea of falling from grace. Alas, your future as a millionaire is becoming more apparent.

Stage 4: The Crash

Saying the first cut is the deepest would be the biggest understatement here. Your perfect bracket was just shot to hell with that one Ivy League team that has been irrelevant up until now. You search for a way to cope — maybe some tears or brutal trash talk. You reassure your group that your "almost perfect bracket" still has great potential.

Stage 5: New Hope

Finally, the Round of 32 is your time to shine. No one even remembers what happened in 64. Sure, your bracket is off by two or three but nobody's perfect and you're still in the top three of your group. It's a new day.

Stage 6: Total Defeat

Bam. Just like that, your bracket is shattered and busted really doesn't even begin to cover it. There are so many games going on at once that you don't even know which ones ruined you. The madness has truly set in — threes are losing to elevens and can no one make free throws anymore?!

Stage 7: Grief

Your bracket is dead. It's only been three days, but it feels like a lifetime. Your last breath of hope rests in the hands of your team (if you're lucky enough to still have them in). The burial service for your bracket is set and you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning. Will you have another chance?

Stage 8: OMG is this happening

This stage is somewhere between the stroke you just had during the last 10 seconds of the game and the celebratory hugs from everyone around you. You've spent the last half wondering if your team is really worth the years you just shed from your life, but it has all paid off. Finally, your home team decided to listen to your yelling at the TV and get their ish together. Who needs a perfect bracket when you have a dream?

Stage 9: "We Can Totally Make This Game"

Ah yes, the let's-all-crowd-around-the-computer-screen-and-frantically-find-tickets phase. Who needs to buy groceries in April anyways right? "If we get in the car right now we will only miss five classes and be there in 48 hours." It's a university approved excuse, right?

Stage 10: Overly Confident

You may not be at the game, but wow are you ready. This is your year. "This is our year." Sure, you may be the underdogs and actually most people in the arena appear to be wearing the other team's colors, but hey, you've got spirit.

Stage 11: Frustration

It's halftime and your team is down by 12. You've either muted the TV or taken a solid walk around the block to cope with the anger. After all you've been through, this is how they're going to treat you?

Stage 12: Denial

One giant L. Your team is out and all that's left is you and your sad little bracket. March Madness feels more like your middle school break up than a tournament.

Stage 13: Hopelessness

Do you delete your app? Claim temporary insanity? Throw out the "Psh I could've won if only this team and this team had won their games?" Or do you soldier through hoping that maybe your final four still has a chance to be correct?

Stage 14: Limited Attention

The Final Four is just another set of games. You hardly remember the past at this point and the days are running together. Was it really just a few weeks ago that you had the heart of a champion?

Stage 15: Total Defeat

That's it, you're done. The championship just took whatever dignity you had left and smothered it with confetti and poor interview questions. You didn't just lose one game — you lost the entire tournament. Your predictions were picked apart piece by piece, and your score estimate? El. Oh. El.

There's always next year.