It’s that wonderful time of year again, a time when the sun is shining and you can smell summer in the air. The sky is blue after the cold winter and the world is full of beautiful possibility. Spring break is here and you can kick back, stick your feet in the sand, lather on the sun lotion, and enjoy the endless pina coladas to come. You’re a happy person, and you just want it to stay that way.

Then, something terrifying happens to shatter your bliss. It’s Sunday, which means tomorrow is Monday, and Monday means school. You tell yourself “alright, how bad can it be? I did a few months of this school thing already so I can do another two.

But oh, it’s different this time around. You’ve tasted a piece of summer’s freedom, and you don’t want to go back. You wake up and suddenly feel the bliss of the pina coladas being quickly replaced by the panic of papers and anxiety of the midterms to come.

You step onto campus, and it’s a different world. What happened to the beach and the happiness? Where did the sun go? Probably wherever the sliver of calm left in my life went …

When you get to class, papers and projects and assignments are thrown at you left and right. Where did all of this information come from? When were all of these tests assigned? How can someone possibly fit so many due dates into one week?

You look around to see if you’re the only one who feels like they are being bombarded with information they’ve never remotely heard before, and you find a bit of remaining peace in knowing you’re not the only one.

You wonder how you’re going to learn all of this foreign information and how so many due dates can be crammed into two day. Most of all, you wonder how all of this happened so quickly.

You realize that there are three options for how you will cope with the rest of the semester ...

One: pizza.

Two: drinking.

Or three: work.

And then you take the tests and the midterms. You write the essays and do the projects. Before you know it, you’re done. You’ve made it to the end of the tunnel and, you’re out of the woods because it’s finally summer. Now all that’s left to do is pack your bikini, say your goodbyes, and hit the beach.