At the end of every summer, students five through twenty-two strap on their backpacks and lace up their new shoes to head out the door to school. A new semester always brings such promise with it. We always vow that this will be the year that we get straight As, work out regularly, save our money, and maintain a social life. This mindset may actually work for a while… then midterms hit. Around November, we will ultimately wake up on the floor of our room surrounded by study guides and three-day-old pizza wondering when the last time we washed our hair was. How did we get here and where did our wide-eyed August excitement go?
Syllabus Week is without a doubt the biggest tease in all of education. We are told about all of our exams and projects but tell ourselves there is no need to worry about that right now, it’s the first day of class after all. In a few weeks, the first round of tests will roll around and we suddenly realize the key fact we had forgotten at the beginning of the semester: school is hard. Now we can remember why our social life plummeted last year taking our spring break body with it because, let’s face it, broccoli just doesn’t taste as good as a Crunchwrap Supreme when you are studying at 2 a.m.
Then the most deadly of all school nightmares comes around: fall break. This time is disguised as a resting period when you get to recharge your batteries and prepare for rest of the semester. Maybe you even vowed to redo that resolution from earlier in the year. A week of having your mom cook for you and sleeping until noon is hard to let go of when you get back on campus, though. You’ll find yourself holding onto these days in paradise for dear life. Your professors don’t help much with your adjustment when they assign three quizzes, two exams and a project to welcome you back. Cue the late night meltdown ending in the wake-up we talked about earlier.
Every student has felt the stress of this time of the year, preschool to PhD, but we cannot let it bring us down. Let’s stop putting these crazy expectations on ourselves at the beginning of the year and remember we are human. You will not always get an A, you will have to tell your best friend ‘no’ because you need to study and sometimes a pint of Ben & Jerry is more comforting than a treadmill. Forgive yourself and move on. The midterm slump is all too real and even the best can get caught up in it. The key is to focus on why you are going through this torment, whether it be to get into your top college, find your dream career or provide for your family. We are in this together, people. Let’s find our light at the end of the tunnel and finish strong!
