Ugh. It’s Monday again. You realize this as your alarm goes off for the tenth time in a half an hour. You feel like you just went to sleep, probably because you did about four hours ago. You get up and stare at the massive bags under your eyes. Accepting the fact you look like someone punched you in the face, you realize you are running late per usual. You rush out the door to your 8 a.m. class and are already looking forward to the weekend.

As you sit in that first class of the week, all you can think is the rest of your day and the rest of your week. Just the thought of it all makes you instantly want to take a nap. But you can’t because when you are that busy there are no such things as naps. Between work, class, meetings, homework and your other various activities you are wondering when you are even going to have time to eat let alone sleep. If your days are anything like mine, they start around 7:30 in the morning and end well after midnight.

You often wonder how much longer you can keep up with your busy days. Your friends make comments like “I don’t even know how you are functioning right now” or “I don’t know how you do this every day.” You agree with them but somehow you manage to get through every day (barely).

The lack of sleep and poor eating habits will eventually catch up to you. You find yourself falling asleep while doing homework and looking in the mirror wondering if you can fit the gym into your already busy schedule. You may become unbearably cranky and moody and take it out on people who don’t deserve it. And when you add the everyday stress of life onto the lack of sleep and bad food, you will eventually wind up sick. I myself am recovering from a double ear infection and strep. Even the sickness won’t stop you. Your busy schedule doesn’t allow you to be sick. You find yourself counting down the days until summer and hoping next semester isn’t as bad. But you know it will be, because you are you and you like to stay busy and involved.

So to all my sleep deprived and over worked college friends take some time for yourselves during this last month of school. Go to the movies. Hang with some friends. Take a nap. Just get out of your dorm room and away from the library for a little bit. The homework, the responsibilities, and your other priorities can be put on hold for a minute while you make yourself a priority for once. It’s important to take time for yourself every once in a while or else you will never get through the semester alive. Take this from a girl who stretched herself way to thin this semester. Enjoy your weekends. Enjoy your friends. Go out and have fun. College will be over before you know it and you don’t want your best memories to be from inside the library.

So from one sleep deprived and over worked college student to another, go do something fun this week, I promise you, you will not regret it!