It's that time of the year again, folks. Dead week, the name given to the week leading up to finals, is upon us. If it isn't dead week at your school yet, it's coming soon. It is named dead week because, well, that's how most of us feel. Between scrambling to finish end-of-semester projects and studying for finals, it gets a bit hectic. It's pretty much a blur of exhaustion, term papers, and note cards. The best way I can describe it is with series of Buddy the Elf GIFs. Enjoy.

Before Dead Week: All smiles...

Then it hits you.

You start to beat yourself up for letting all this work pile up on you.

You kept telling yourself you had time to do it later...

But the end of the semester popped up out of nowhere.

Coffee becomes essential...

And you can pretty much kiss your diet goodbye.

Showering becomes less and less of a priority...

Because you're way too busy trying not to fail at life.

You start to see things that aren't really there...

And at times, you just want to scream.

Slowly but surely, though, you start to rise above all the stress...

And start to really get work done.

And feel like you can tackle anything.

Before you know it, dead week and finals are over...

And you can focus on what's really important.