1. When "messy" becomes the new "chic"

I know, I know. It's not finals yet, but what you feel during midterm season is pretty darn close to the existential dread you will feel during finals. Usually, you care about looking nice, or at least clean, when you go to class, but now there is no time for that. You haven't washed your hair in days so it just lays on your head like a bird's nest, that over-sized hoodie has become your uniform, and you're wearing zero makeup. You look like a slob, and you know it, but you really don't have time to care.

2. When coffee becomes the only thing keeping your life together

It's only 2 p.m. but you've ordered your ninth cup of coffee for the day and the Starbucks barista doesn't even question it. Your debit card is crying, but you tell it to "hush" because you don't care how much money you spend, you need COFFEE, COFFEE, COFFEE!

3. When you have one hour until your ten-page paper is due and your friend tries to talk to you

You love your friends, and typically, you want nothing more but to hang out and listen to them rant about the boys that broke their hearts this week, but JESUS, CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT I'M ONLY ON PAGE FIVE OF TEN, I HAVE AN HOUR LEFT TO TURN THIS PAPER IN, AND I'M TRYING TO PULL WORDS OUT OF MY BUTT RIGHT NOW, so please, shut up. You can tell me about how much of a jerk Mark is tomorrow.

4. When you've only slept four hours in the passed four days

You're exhausted. Your body is giving out. It's becoming difficult to stay awake, no matter how much coffee you've drunk, but there is no way you can risk sleeping for more than an hour if you're trying to re-read all of "Paradise Lost" before your midterm tomorrow. Oh, and don't forget, you have a presentation on Hitchcock's perverse ethics due tomorrow too.

5. When you procrastinated on studying by doing other assignments so now you're pulling another all-nighter

This is what? The fourth all-nighter you've pulled this week? You get distracted when you try studying during the day, so you decide that doing other assignments is still productive and put off the dreadful Gertrude Stein a little bit longer, until night time comes around and you still haven't reviewed "The Gentle Lena". It's 4 a.m., your brain is fried, and you start to hysterically cry... and laugh... at the same time. You consider the fact that you may have lost your mind, but you suck it up, and force yourself to keep studying.

6. When the thought of dropping-out and following a "humble" career path crosses your mind

Who needs school, right? You can be happy working a minimum-wage job if it means you never have to study for an exam again. Although you're not actually going to call it quits and move back home, you romanticize the idea of it. The thought that you can just quit but won't because you're stronger than that is somehow comforting.