The end of the semester has finally arrived. For some of you readers, this will be your last semester of college, so first off, congratulations. For others, you may be just getting started or in the middle of your college career and wondering if you'll ever get out. To all of you, congratulations on making it this far. And for those of you who wonder if you'll make it through finals, here's some advice that might help.

This time in the semester has always reminded me of an experience I had in high school. It was my senior year, second semester, and everyone I knew was dying to graduate, myself included. I was taking an AP English class that year and I remember one day my teacher took the beginning of class to tell us a story. My memory isn't perfect, but from what I recall, it was about a track star who ran his entire race, and was winning, but lost his drive at the end and "bonked." He was so close to being finished, but he gave in to his lack of motivation and belief that the work was over, so he never even finished the race.

My teacher made an interesting point with this story. She said that all of us had already come so far, and invested so much time and energy into our educations, we couldn't afford to write it all off and fail now. She wanted to see all of us at graduation, not dropping out or slacking off, or coming back for summer school to get our diplomas. "Don't bonk!" she told us. "It's not worth it."

In high school, I laughed and shrugged this off. I knew I was going to graduate. But now that I'm in college, I think the advice is even more important. No one else is here to make me do anything. I don't have parents or teachers or anyone who looks over my shoulder and makes sure that I will do my homework or study. It's all on me, and how motivated I am to get those things done.

Lack of motivation is completely understandable at the end of the semester. Life is stressful, tests and papers come up and it's hard to find a way to do everything. But as my teacher said, we have come too far to give in now. As college students, we have invested time, energy, and money into our educations. If we "bonk" now and don't finish strong, we are throwing all of that away, for nothing. Surviving the entire semester, year, or college career and then slacking now would be an insult to ourselves.

It's the end of the semester and life is hard. Motivation may be completely nonexistent. But don't bonk. Don't give up on getting your diploma, or making the grade in that class, because you've come too far to let it all go now. So sleep if you can, get some caffeine if you can't, and keep running to the end of the race.