Students study in the library in preparation for finals week, which is now only just over a week away. The Commuter Corner author talks about what this means for commuter students. (Tyler Benton/The Daily Campus)
I hope that when you read the title, the song starts playing in your head. Instead of studying, just think through that song over and over. It’s bound to help out somehow.
Anyway, the finals crunch is on. A little over a week until the end of April, which warns of the commencement of finals. What could that mean for a commuter? Basically the same as anyone else, I’d imagine. My schedule is a little more difficult during finals season, but it’s manageable. I’ll be driving 40 minutes to be on campus for two hours, then driving back home in another 40-minute spurt. For the 8 a.m. final I have, that’s going to be rotten. For the 6 p.m. final I have the day before that, it’s going to be even worse. I’ll be home around 9 p.m. that night, and then up by 5:30 the next morning to get ready to head out.
In the weeks before finals, I can pretty much see this ugly bubble of stress growing, piling up with my dirty laundry in a dark corner of my room. I don’t want to study, but know that I should. I don’t want to start writing that essay the professor gave us two weeks in advance, but I should. I don’t want to attend classes at this pivotal point, but I manage to continue doing that at least. Mainly, though, I fill my time with reading random books, writing some articles, seeing friends or basically anything other than what I’m supposed to do as a good student. Sometimes I just stare at the blob of stress, letting it consume me for a couple minutes before going back to something that does nothing to ease my worries about school.
Honestly, I’m not as worried about finals as I make it out to be, but thinking about that causes a little stress as well. Shouldn’t I be more worried? Shouldn’t I care more about my grades? Don’t I want to get a good internship down the road? Don’t I want to keep my fancy scholarships?
Well, yes. But that hasn’t stopped me from reading to my heart’s content and fiddling with my phone. The knowledge of what I should do is ever-present, as it is for most college students, I’d imagine. But the will to tackle that messy bubble of stress does not yet exist. It will come, I’m sure, when there’s barely enough time to study for even one class. For right now, I’m going to just let it sit. The worries will grow in the background, and maybe I’ll do something here and there to curb the stress, but I just want a little rest at this moment. No car troubles, no impending finals, no money problems. Just writing and reading and checking Facebook.
Hannah Desrosiers is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at hannah.desrosiers@uconn.edu.