God always has a remnant- of decent guys, of people that still eat meat- and in this case, of college students still in school. For those of us on the semester system, unless you’re taking summer sessions, we are not only finished with classes, but our summer antics have already commenced. However, let’s not forget about our friends on the quarter system. The good news is, they only have one week left. The bad news is, they still have finals to complete and thus, are not quite finished yet. While I can’t offer any academic help, I do have some advice to help them push through this upcoming week, which can be grueling.
It can be discouraging when everyone has finished something before you; it can affect your ability and desire to complete the task at hand. Coupled with that feeling of being in a race by yourself is a feeling of anxiety – of being so close to finishing that you can almost taste it. And even though you can taste it and you’re ready for summer, it doesn’t change the fact that you still have to finish. It doesn’t make finals go away and it doesn’t mean you get the chance to bypass the process altogether. Believe me, I know.
Perhaps, thinking of this next week as a test, an opportunity to show what you have learned, will be helpful. A little on the nose, yes, but useful. When we are preparing for a test, we are shown strategies that will enable us to solve future problems. The problems may vary but the method used to solve them is the same. The same rule can be applied to your current dilemma. Yes, you’re taking different classes, perhaps even more difficult than classes prior, but you’ve done this before, twice actually. You have already proved to yourself that you can persevere pass distractions, and now you just have to do it one more time. Return to the devices that helped you push through the first two quarters.
While it is hard to forget that no one else is in school, forget about that. Comparison is the thief of joy and comparing your current state of being overwhelmed with academia to your relaxing friends is already the wrong way to go. Yes, this is a race. But there are two things I’ve learned about races. (1) Regardless of who finishes first, everyone still has to finish. The second thing is that when runners are racing, they never stop to look at other runners. Frankly, they don’t have the time to because they are focused on completing their own race.
The only way to get to the end of the race is to finish it, and the only way to be successful is to focus on the task at hand exclusively. Remember, in a week, this will all be over. The countdown starts now.
