On your marks: unpacking for college and moving into my dorm. It felt weird for the first few nights not having anyone else in the room, just an empty bed, desk, and dresser. I was anxious to see how she would decorate the room. What she would think of me, how she would react to my messiness (sorry Meg), how we would get along. There were so many people to meet within the first few days and the first week. I didn’t understand how many things would change after the first week

Get set: the first week of classes when I was still trying to figure out how to get across campus. Finding my classes wasn’t so bad, it was worse trying to get from one to the next within ten minutes, I continuously questioned myself to figure out which path would get me where the fastest. It didn’t help that every day I tried to figure out a new route either.

GO: everything from thereon out. Classes were in full swing, I felt good about understanding my course requirements and the expectations that each professor had. Between Fairy Tales: A Hero’s Journey, Women In Search of Utopia, Intro to World Religions: Western and Modern, Academic Writing, and What is the Contemporary: A Study of Genre, I felt like my plate was decently filled. No assignments were too challenging and none were all too easy. I was keeping my stride.

Lap 2: coming back from Fall Break. I felt ready to push through, I had my fix of home friends and Fanwood Bagel and felt ready for classes to continue. One month to go until I reached my next lap and I knew I could do it. I knew I just had to keep pushing myself forward, one stride at a time. All of my midterms were turned in and I felt good about all of the work I was handing in.

Lap 3: coming back from Thanksgiving Break. I understood that there wouldn’t be much time until I had to prepare for finals. Luckily, I knew that it would be mostly essays and as a writing major, that doesn’t particularly bother me. I knew two weeks of classes would be easy enough, and one of my finals was even due before finals week. I kept telling myself “You got this,” but hour after hour I watched myself click on netflix, scroll through Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. I was NOT doing what I was supposed to. I finally realized where I fell through the cracks: I was unorganized. I didn’t have a checklist in front of me or a strict calendar outlining my next three weeks. I finally pushed myself through the last step and pulled myself together. I knew exactly what was due and when. I was ready to power through the last stretch of classes and finals.

The finish line: just ten feet in front of me. I have three finals completed and just two more to go, you could say it’s crunch time. However, I feel like I deserve the time to relax a bit. I feel like I should breathe just a bit, catch my breath, let my lungs fill with the beautiful air I have been heaving out of my lungs for the past few weeks. Granted, by the time all of you read this it will be Monday and hopefully I will have more work done. Hopefully I will be working on my last final of my first semester. The finish line is so close and while I’m excited to get there, I’d like to stop and appreciate the race.