Finals week. It’s that special time of the semester that everyone looks forward to and cannot wait to get started on. It’s filled with lots of laughs, fun, taking some time to relax, and getting a full night’s sleep all week. During finals week, everyone is so nice to each other and always willing to help each other out. There’s a certain bond that people make during this time.

While most of that was satirical, there is a certain kind of bond and mutual understanding among college students during finals week. It’s a combination of being so stressed out that your hair is turning grey, and being so sleep deprived that literally anything goes during the final week.

Is that kid walking around in a duck onesie and crocs? Completely okay. The one kid doing the “walk of shame,” and by that I mean coming back from the library at 5 a.m. because you finally finished that essay you put off until the last minute? That’s OK too, we’ve all been there.

So while finals week is a time to worry about the upcoming tests and making sure you memorized the entirety of all five of your textbooks, simply to regurgitate the information and forget it all by the end of the week, it is also a time where students find themselves and it’s a safe time to do so.

Finals week is a great time to explore the limits of what you are and are not willing to do. Are you willing to go to that test in your pajamas? How about not doing your hair, or makeup? If you haven’t figured it out in the past, why not give it a try during finals?

Nobody’s going to judge or even bat an eye because even those who do notice something’s different, through their overtired and glazed-over eyes, they won’t say anything because “we’ve all been there.”

That’s the bond I’m talking about, it’s like the whole campus gets a free pass and all the standard “rules” and social expectations no longer exist for the week. It’s suddenly okay to be on your fifth cup of coffee by 10 a.m., it may not be healthy, and you may or may not experience heart problems, but hey, nobody will say anything to you about it.

I, of course, am not condoning the over-stressing of the body, because when it comes down to it, a good night’s sleep is better than cramming until 4 a.m. But I am saying that it’s OK to not get dolled up for finals week. If you want to get that extra hour of sleep in the morning as opposed to getting up and showering, then do that!

During finals, your highest priority is kicking ass on those tests, and while some still continue their daily routines of hair and makeup and dress, some let it take the back burner while they focus on their tests.

And both approaches are completely valid! Some people perform better if they feel better, and some would rather just focus primarily on the test at hand.

At the end of the day, finals week is all about one thing: doing your very best, and as long as you put forth all the effort you need, who really cares what else you do.

You do you, and you rock those exams.