No matter who you talk to, finals week seems to carry a measure of austerity. My father still tells me of dreams he has, now decades past his time at university, in which he is anxiously awaiting his coming finals. Waking up in a sweat, he realizes that that time in life is far past, and I’m again reminded of how important it is to do well in my classes.
As I consider my time in college, finals week represents the death to all fervor surrounding collegiate spirit and happiness. It is a time where organized campus activity ends, and the chaotic degradation of one’s emotional, physical, and psychological well-being begins. Representing a seemingly everlasting tumult of stress and anxiety, finals week can become a week of trauma for any given student, as classes vary in intensity, expectation, and evaluation. It is a time of perseverance, but also of all-nighters, breakdowns, and exhaustion. For many students, finals week represents not only the culmination of their term, but quite possibly the truest test of their commitment to themselves and their futures. For this reason, I was grateful to the office for allowing me to take the week off to complete my final papers and study for my final exams. Putting aside my work laptop and phone for a week, I pushed myself into my studies. Making sure I was 100% caught up on my classes, I went to work drafting final papers, making study guides for my final exams, and put everything else to the side. Over the course of the week, I learned more than I ever thought I would on Ceuta and Melilla (two Spanish occupied cities on the African continent), the historical collection and theologian analyses of the Gospels, and quotidian procedures guiding congressional practice and procedure. With my classic finals work/study combination of a can of Pepsi, a bag of gummy bears, my favorite music, and plenty of space, I was simultaneously exhausted and desperately trying to consume every piece of pertinent information I could. It was a weird state of mind to be in. Yet I still pushed on every time I felt like faltering because even with the coronavirus pandemic, my peers and I were expected to complete our exams and assessments as previously scheduled. In some classes, the majority of my grade rested on this final week of work. Buckling down, papers strewn across my room, hair a bit wild, my mind raced the entirety of the week. I lost my appetite and my sense of time. I lived in hoodies and sweatpants, and slept by my computer. I’m sure I looked a mess, but I never really had time to check. This past week, I just worked. Anticlimactically, my week ended with a click of a button. Submitting my papers via Blackboard or email, finals week ended with a sigh rather than exhilaration. Closing out my tabs and shutting down my computer, I felt relieved, hungry, and exhausted all at the same time. Over the course of my weekend, my grades began to trickle in. And by the time of my writing this, I’m proud to say I ended the semester with a 3.8 GPA. I’ve still got a little bit of sleep to catch up on, though it’ll be nice to relax a bit before summer classes start up next week.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author:
|
Photo used under Creative Commons from Mike Juvrud