Everyone has been told about the Five Stages of Grief at one time or another in their life, and while typically applied when mourning the loss of a loved one, I have found they are also applicable to the weeks leading up to the notorious dead week and finals week.

Week 1 - Denial

At this point, you've been home for a week successfully avoiding all responsibility while reminiscing about the beach or whatever exotic place you ventured to over break. However one week down, one week closer to dead week, a whole lot of anger starts to take over. You're angry that you procrastinated so hard, that you're going to continue procrastinating (because lets be real there's still time to waste), and you're angry that your teachers keep piling up the workload when there are so many other ~better~ things to do in the little spare time you do have. I wish I could say it gets better from here, but it's always darkest before the dawn.

Week 2 - Anger

This is the week you get mad at your teachers, who seem to pile on as much extra busy work at possible. Maybe you get mad at your roommate(s) because you're over sharing a confined space. It's possible you're even mad at yourself because you know this road you are on will not end well.

No matter what the reason, you're going to get frustrated on top of the stress and probably anxiety you feel. Deep breaths, head down. You got this.

Week 3 - Bargaining

So I'm gonna loosely redefine this for y'all as basically that "Oh sh*t" period when you've snapped back into reality only to realize how far down the rabbit hole you've fallen. You feel like the only thing to do is scramble on over to office hours to beg for any extra credit your prof is willing to give you- if they're willing to give you any at all.

You might also use this week to pray to whatever God, gods, role model, or anything in between to help you get the job done because at this point the future is very dim.

Week 4- Depression

Now don't get me wrong, I am not making light of depression here but feeling completely overwhelmed by the task at hand can definitely bring you down and have you feeling the blues. Week 4 is when this sadness is probably going to hit you, you might even start to realize that *gasp* you'll actually need to begin studying sometime within the next 5 minutes to get ready for the last few weeks of school! The good news is everyone else is feeling just as down and overwhelmed as you are (and if they aren't then PLEASE share your secret with us).

Week 5 - Acceptance

Ah, finally. The light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps for you, this is dead week, or sooner, or maybe the week of finals. Either way, you've finally realized that you'll just have to buckle down and study or take the L (I guess in this case it's the F though).