As the semester comes to an end, it seems like all of my professors are plotting against me and coordinating their essays, quizzes and exams in the same week.
With finals week looming over my head, it becomes easy to forgo the time that helps me function in a healthy way.
I find myself sacrificing my precious sleep in order to finish an assignment or reread a chapter before an exam. I would even opt out of a fun social gathering on a Friday night in order to put some final touches on an essay that was due Sunday night.
Mihaela Karst
Argonaut
Because worrying is in my nature, I often stress about a class until dark circles form under my eyes, and I know I am not the only one. My tougher courses are at the forefront of my mind at all times and every leisure activity I once enjoyed went out the window – sleep being one of my personal favorites.
One particularly hard night, I decided to video chat with my mom as a little pick-me-up. Within five minutes of our conversation, she stopped midsentence and told me I looked exhausted and she asked me how classes were going.
In that moment, I realized how little I had been sleeping. Whether I had been hunched over my desk typing away into the wee hours of the morning or tossing and turning thinking about a looming exam, the truth of the matter was that I was slowly losing myself in my schoolwork.
I explained my problems and my overwhelming stress to my mom, and she asked me why I was making myself more stressed than I needed to be.
I, of course, immediately explained that it wasn”t my fault. College is hard and my classwork is getting more and more difficult and there just aren”t enough hours in the day.
My mom looked at me with kindness in her eyes, and she told me that I put myself through the stress I was experiencing. Why lose sleep over things I can”t change?
I realized something then. Maybe I didn”t need to sacrifice meals to meet with my professor during their office hours. Maybe I didn”t need to go to sleep at 3 a.m. only to wake up a few hours later to do more work.
The straw that broke the camel”s back was the moment that one of my closest friends told me he was going on his third all-nighter this week. I was just about to tell him he should take a night off and get a good night”s sleep when I realized I should practice what I preached.
My transition from high school to college was easier in some ways and harder in others. In high school, the classes never really challenged me and I rarely had schoolwork outside of class, so I never stayed up later than midnight against my free will. Then college hit me like a truck and suddenly I was being pulled in all sorts of directions.
While my grades didn”t suffer, sometimes I felt like my health did. The stress was taking a toll on my mind and in turn people were able to see it in my appearance. It took a comment from my mom to shake me from this dazed routine I”d placed myself in.
I finally understood that I”m allowed to put my own needs over school sometimes, and this is a fact so easily ignored by the average college student. It”s easy for me to say that I can go without those extra few hours of sleep, but is it really worth losing my sanity?
With finals right around the corner, my mom is on my speed dial for another friendly reminder every now and then.
Mihaela Karst can be reached at [email protected]