No matter where in the world they may be, what they may be studying, or how on fleek their eyebrows are, college students of all shapes and sizes can agree on one thing: finals week is the worst.
The week where grades are slipping and it gets harder and harder to find the will and motivation to keep going and finish strong.
The week where, no matter how moral of a person you are, you start to lie about all the service learning assignments you actually completed and how much you didn't cheat on the final exam.
The week where your friendships are put through the fire as you start to forget who your friends are, because you look into their trusting faces and see only the laughing faces of your evil professors.
How does one find hope in the midst of this terror, anxiety, demonic things, Netflix binges, buckets upon overflowing buckets of tears, and procrastination? How can one go on living through such hellitry?
First, you take a step back. Find someone with a car (or take your own) and get the hell off your campus. Don't know anybody with a car? Find a friend and go on a refreshing walk through nature (but always avoid the Nature Trail). Not a very active person and just don't want to go for a drive? Take out that canvas and paints/pen and paper/turn on the music and let your creative spirit thrive!
Once you've done that, the next step is this: think about all the good things in your life. Forget about your deadlines for maybe 10 minutes and focus on your current life status; what can you be thankful for? If you're struggling, here's a few things to help you move along:
1. You have friends.
2. You're breathing.
3. You're able to eat and have a roof over your head.
4. You're probably closer to reaching your goals and dreams! Yay!
Once those things have been identified, try to keep those things in the front of your mind as you dive in to your stepping back activity, whatever it may be. Let that be your motivation to keep working on that!
When you're finished with that activity, take some deep breaths. Here's some help with that.
Now that you've been through this whole process, you can go back to studying or repeat it until you feel better. Finals are hard and cause a lot of anxiety, and I know that many students are feeling that crunch to get out of class and go home for break. Just remember that you're doing great and you WILL make it through this!
