It’s the first in what will soon be a series of long nights as the time for finals nears us. We’ve prepared for ourselves a wholesome meal of ramen noodles and popcorn. My music-majoring friend walks through the door to my dorm room, triumphantly bringing in with him a pair of Starbucks coffees.

“I’m going to chug this now…because what goes better with ramen, buttered popcorn, and a Payday than coffee flavored like tiramisu?” He takes a drink, then coughs. “This tastes disgusting,” he mutters, and continues to drink.

For fine arts majors (well, for all majors), this time of the year is stressful. I have four tests to study for, two presentations, two final projects to plan and create, another project for a client, an annotated bibliography, and a few more homework assignments. All in the span of a few short weeks.

It’s personally pretty hard to balance creativity with the need to complete all your assignments on time. Perhaps that’s where a lot of the stress comes from. Instead of having the freedom to take your time on your work and make sure that it is the best it can be, it gets to a point where you have to check things off a list and move on. You have to plan to be creative – and that’s not something that comes easy to me.

It can be kind of exhilarating at times – you’re up at midnight running on coffee, a pencil furiously scribbling onto paper and making art before your exhausted eyes. Sometimes the stress of finals and the pressure of impending deadlines can do something magical – it can give you a burst of energy and send you into a fury of beautiful creation. (It can also burn you out and create lifeless work, so it’s kind of a 50/50 shot.)

But finals isn't all bad. It teaches you the sanctity of your evenings. It gives you a new appreciation for the marvel of sleep. It pushes you to your limits, forcing your creative brain to stop running in circles and focus. It makes you sit down, breathe, and think about what inspires you. It provides valuable quality time with your friends at 2 in the morning when you're both up working. It can create some pretty bad work if you put it off too much, but it can also push you enough to turn out some of your best work.

Yes, your coffee stash will be depleted. Tears will be shed. Stress-eating will commence. But you will get through this. (I would offer a more certain conclusion, but seeing as how I haven't made it through yet, I will at least say that we are all in this together. We got this. *fist bump*)