By: Madelynn Lockwood, Features Editor
Anyone who has been through a finals week knows how drab and down it can get with academic pressure, being on the cusp of a long-awaited arrival home and the anxious anticipation of closing out another academic semester. Luckily for us, there is a silver lining. Fall finals week happens to occur at the beginning of the holiday season, making it a significantly more exciting time, despite the impending doom of exams and final grades being released! To fight that pit in your stomach, I am going to provide you with some of my best tips and tricks to help fight your seasonal depression and get the holidays rolling before you head home for the semester.
To get us started you need to get the heck out of your room! If you are a resident on campus, I know how easy it is to go to class and then retreat to the warm and cozy den that is your bedroom, but know that it can also be easy to feel lonely — and especially isolated — this time of year. When school gets difficult and you’re far from home, being with people and around people can take your grinch-y demeanor and maybe even grow your heart three sizes. The library is a great place to go to see other humans interacting even if you don’t want to interact yourself. The dining hall too – and you’re bound to know someone there and strike up a conversation – even if that is not your intention. The Christmas-y vibes that have been spreading slowly across campus are bound to lift any Scrooge-like moods.
Unfortunately, during finals’ week we do actually need to complete our finals, which can seem like climbing an uphill battle, especially when professors assign work and other preceding assignments until the last day of classes. Knowing that the end is in sight is an incredibly beneficial motivator for me and I hope that putting that in perspective can help you too! Perhaps making a countdown, a day-by-day to-do list, or itemized game plan to help make an overwhelming amount of assignments seem manageable (which they are!). Bonus points for making your to-do list Christmas themed!
With an egregious amount of work on the horizon, it’s important to make the never-ending to-do list as pain free as possible. When doing homework, prepare for a longer study session than normal, meaning pack some snacks, put on your comfiest clothes (maybe even an ugly sweater or those obnoxious Christmas pajamas your mom bought for you last year), and bring the chargers for all of your devices – even an extra pair of headphones, if you have them – because nothing can kill a good study session like needing to run to your car or the dorm to grab something you forgot. Remember those study habits that we talked about a couple months ago? It’s time to bring those back or even switch them up if they haven’t been working too well lately!
Friends make this whole college thing worthwhile, too! Bringing your friends along for the ride might be beneficial! Although, proceed with caution, because if you bring your friends that are majoring in yapping (me) they may deter your homework endevors. Aside from the fact that you may all get some assignments done, you will have a significantly more amount fun throughout the process! There is nothing like a good old fashion adventure to procrastinate your homework or even a couple laps of Old Main to get the ol’ noggin running again. I’d even suggest some hangman on the library whiteboards. Although, I have a word of caution – make sure to erase them later because otherwise you will get some crazy head turns depending on the topic.)
At the end of the day it is important to remember that this time too will pass – so enjoy it as much as you can while it is here. I always find that there is such a lovely sense of camaraderie during finals week that is not replicated at any other time of the year. So, be with people and take care of yourself. Remember that college, will come to an end sooner than you’ll prefer, so enjoy all the moments, make the memories, watch the (christmas) movies with your friends, embarrass yourself, go to the event you definitely don’t have time for, and enjoy the chaos that ensues because it will come and go far too fast.