Amid the chaos of midterms, it’s an understatement to say that we’re all stressed. Just this past week alone, I think I spent at least fifteen hours on the quiet floor of the library attempting to focus on completing the massive and ever-growing checklist of exams to study for, topics to research, essays to write, and articles to read. In that amount of time, I probably should have been able to complete the multitude of tasks that now hover over me gloomily as I enter into the final week before the much-anticipated spring break.
Long ago, I was a young, eager, and studious college first-year ready to fill my brain with academic knowledge and determined to graduate at the top of my class. I spent every evening and every weekend at my desk or in the library with my head buried in books and my fingers typing furiously. I spent nearly every waking moment doing homework and planned my days around it. If a spontaneous opportunity to go out to dinner with friends or attend an interesting guest speaker came up, I based my decision of whether to participate on my academics.
Don’t get me wrong, I worked my butt off and I’m proud to say that my grades from my first two years reflect that. However, most of the memories I have from those two years are ones of the library - I know that place like the back of my hand.
This past year, I learned a different way of living. I spent a semester abroad in Ireland and realized that not all learning, not even all academic learning, revolved around books and homework. When I got to University College Dublin and enrolled in six classes, I was blown away to find out that I had ample free time. I did homework while I was there, but it was nowhere near the amount I returned to this semester at my small private liberal arts in the States. Yet, I feel like I learned just as much, if not more, during my time abroad. My studies of vernacular architecture in my folklore class were enhanced by the leisure time I spent walking around small villages with thatched-roof homes and learning about the culture on a Monday night drinking in a pub was more effective than hours spent in a classroom.
In the few months I’ve been back, I have been trying to readjust to the heavy workload and the always busy, always focused, and almost always academic mindset of my freshman self. This past week has been one where I longed to be the productive and studious girl who always had her assignments done on time, but I wasn’t. Instead, I spent the weekend at home with my family, doing the bare minimum of my homework in order to spend more time with them, and then blew off plans to do homework on Sunday evening to spend three hours eating pizza and playing board games with friends. And it was one of the best weekends I have had in a while.
I am in no way endorsing blowing off midterms in favor of dancing the night away, though that does sound preferable. But, as you go into exams and stay up late pouring blood, sweat, and tears into your essays, remember that academics are only one aspect of your life - an important one, no doubt - but only one. Don’t sacrifice personal health, happiness, and relationships for schoolwork. Compromises may need to be made, but on both sides.
I remember my brother telling an overwhelmed high school version of me that my grades didn’t define me, and though that way of thinking may have taken a few years to take root, it’s something I’m forever grateful for. So, I’m here to serve as your own wise older brother and tell you that you are worth far more than the scribbled red letters at the top of your exams.
