It is officially the middle of the semester, and I have a lot of things to catch up on: catch up on sleep, catch up on work, catch up on exercise, catch up on other obligations, catch up on "Stranger Things".

The weeks are going by so quickly because something is always happening. But regardless, it seems like Thanksgiving break can’t come soon enough. I’m only a little ashamed to admit that a good portion of my money goes towards funding my coffee habits, and that if I didn’t have caffeine to depend on, I might be falling apart at the seams.

Basically, I’m not much different than a lot of people my age, because I’m sure that we are all dying for the semester to be over.

However, sometimes I think that I’m insane for having other obligations besides just school. If all I had to worry about was school and not a job or other extracurriculars, I would be getting a whole lot more sleep. I could spend more time focusing on my classes and my friends, and maybe I would spend a little less money by not always needing an iced coffee with an extra shot of espresso.

But this time last year, that’s exactly how my life was, and I wasn’t nearly as happy as I am now.

It’s slightly contradicting, but no matter how stressed out I might be sometimes, I don’t think I would be as happy if I didn’t always have something to do. I love the jobs that I have, and without them, I would be completely broke. I love the activities I do outside of class because it gives me the opportunity to grow and talk to other people. At the end of the day, I’m thankful I have classes to stress out over, because education is such a valuable asset that is not afforded to everyone.

We are at a stage in life where everything we do is extremely pivotal to our overall success. That very notion can induce overwhelming feelings of anxiety and fear, because it seems like if we mess up, we’ll never recover from it. But remember that life is a series of stepping stones; if you trip, you can always get right back up.

I know that is something difficult to see right now, in the middle of the semester, drowning in midterms and overdue assignments. I’m definitely not perfect, because I’ll probably complain again in about an hour. But every now and then I force myself to step back and realize that I’m not an unhappy person, because with all the opportunities that I’ve been blessed with, I just can’t be.

My college friends, and even my high school friends: we have a little over a month left. We’re going to get through this, and when we do, we’re going to enjoy our time with our friends and family — and that will ultimately make it all worth it. We also might hibernate for the entirety of winter break, but it’s okay, because we earned it.