Finals week has forever been known as a week from hell, and it never fails to hold true. Everyone handles this time of the semester in different ways, but most of us hit these categories at least once each semester, so don’t judge too hard.
1. The person who has studied all semester. This is the one who the whole library hates because we are all jealous of your cool and collected demeanor. You can spot these because they sometimes smile and laugh, and they also may try to chat with you, because they don’t realize you need every single second to cram for dear life. These are the students who somehow have realized how to be responsible throughout the semester, manage their time wisely, and actually stay awake during lectures. I would say congratulations, but I kind of want to fight you.
2. The student who is hyped up one at least 4 coffees and 2 Redbulls. This can be a lot of us because there are plenty of reasons on finals week to need to stay up all night. This is the one who has either procrastinated for weeks on studying, didn’t go to class all semester, or has 3 finals in one day. I feel like at any point during this week from hell at least 70% of the library is in this state, you can just feel the caffeine rage in the air. If I had to estimate, I would say this number jumps to at least 95% when you’re still in the library past 3 AM.
3. The student who thought they could be better than the hyped on caffeine group, but falls asleep at their table. You can typically spot these guys before they actually fall asleep because they are the ones who say things like “how many coffees did you say you had?” and follows that with, “you know how bad that is for your body?” You can also guess who these people are because they are sometimes spotted in beanbag chairs. Most of this category is freshmen, because anyone who has made it through finals even once knows you can’t stay awake in a beanbag chair passed about midnight.
4. The criers. These guys are rough. This mental breakdown usually happens sometime between when you’ve locked yourself in the library and haven’t seen the sunshine in 3 days, and when you realize you brought the wrong Scantron to your exam. It is hard to help these people because they just need to let it out, and it gets worse because usually as the tears are rolling they realize they are wasting time crying. Cue more crying.
There we have it, for freshmen all I have to say is mentally prepare to enter the library and never leave. And for everyone else, may the odds be ever in your favor.
