Rice students had Monday and Tuesday off of school this past week. While this was a welcome break for all, now that we’re back, it seems many of us are struggling even more so than we were two weeks ago. Midterm season is in full swing, and stress is mounting for academic and personal reasons.

This happens every year, so this semester, I tried to prepare in advance for the season of stress by reminding myself of my priorities. This is all in the hope of focusing on what really matters, and not getting caught up in little, petty, annoying things and/or another existential crisis. Writing down the things I’m irritated by helps me wrap my mind around them, and hopefully let them go. So, here’s my list of things I no longer have time, energy, or patience for.

People who act like they’re the single busiest person on the planet.

Stop it. Everyone else is just as busy and stressed as you are, and turning it into a competition where you’re always the winner isn’t helpful for anyone.

Extra little assignments due the same day as big projects.

OK, so I can’t be totally over these assignments because I need to turn them in. But if a short reading write-up is due the same day as a big midterm paper, then the paper wins in terms of priority level. If the write-up isn’t perfect, it isn’t perfect, and it’s time to just let it go and let it be.

Having the same conversation with certain people every time you see them.

From now on, I’ll go for the smile and wave and just keep walking, because I don’t see the point in the “Hi, how are you?" “I’m good, busy, how are you?” “I’m fine, also busy” “Yeah it’s that time of the semester” “See you around, good luck” conversation. If you want to talk about something real, come find me, otherwise let’s just quickly acknowledge each other’s presence and move on.

Being irritated by people who have no desire to change.

Oprah was right when she said “When people show you who they are, believe them.” You can’t change people, and I personally am done being exhausted because I’m aggravated 95 percent of the time. Not worth.

Shitty Wi-Fi.

It makes my Spotify Free app cut in and out, and I’m not having it. Also kind of hard to do work on a computer when you have no Internet connection.

Thinking about the future.

Right now, I just need to get through the next two weeks, and I hope to have some fun along the way. Thinking about and planning for *the future* can wait; the future will still be there when I resurface. Until then, it’s not worth the angst.

People who look good at the gym.

If you’re one of those rare individuals who glistens instead of sweats and has put-together gym outfits, kudos to you, keep doing your thing. I am NOT one of those people, but instead of worrying about how ridiculous I look while struggling on the elliptical or attempting to lift weights, I’m going to keep doing my mismatched oversized clothes, messy hair, sweating buckets, red-faced thing while you’re over there looking like an Adonis.

Thinking about finals.

It’s the second week of October. Please don’t talk to me about final exams until at least the week before Thanksgiving. Finals are inevitable — no need to talk about them now and get stressed out two months early.

Headlines about the Presidential Candidates.

It’ll all be over next month, thank goodness. I can’t take much more of the drama.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a tough time lately. I feel like I’m worried about something all the time, and it’s usually something I can do nothing about, at least in the moment. I wrote this list because I think a lot of people can relate to it, but also largely to remind myself to just let. Things. Go. I’m still trying to find really effective ways of getting out of my own head, but stopping for a few minutes to really think about what’s bothering me helps some. If I try to tell myself not to think about something, I can only think about that one thing. So devoting five or 10 minutes to fuming about an annoyance is productive sometimes. Here’s to chilling out, and to focusing on the immediate things like classes, and self-care, and friends.