Today, in my morning class, I heard multiple people voice their concerns about these next three weeks. Nobody seemed to feel in control of their assignments. The fear of word counts and deadlines was ever-present. One girl said that she had final projects for all five of her classes, and that she had no idea when she was going to get all of them completed. Not only did she want to get them done in time, she wanted to do them well. She was struggling to find a balance in her schedule, so she could contribute the same amount of effort to each of her projects. After all, the goal is to get A’s in all of her classes, so maximum effort is required, especially at this point in the semester.

We are all this girl. Whenever crunch time is upon us, we do not seem to realize it until it is too late, and we are up to our necks in assignments. Every year, we question how we will find the time, and yet every year, we find a way, and we get out of it alive.

A big contribution to this stressful time of year is procrastination. We all procrastinate to a degree, even if we do not like to admit it. I have always been the type of student that prefers to get assignments done early. Yet, this mostly applies to reading assignments, and smaller tasks in general. The big essays and projects have always been a challenge for me. Sometimes, I put pins in ideas for weeks before I decide if it is good enough to pursue or not. That is the curse of being an English major, I am my own worst critic, and I reject half of the ideas that pop into my head.

Do not lie, we have all had this moment: you are sitting in your dorm room in your sweats, at 2 in the morning, peering into a laptop screen, your eyes glazing over as you spoon-feed yourself microwave Kraft macaroni and cheese. Moments like those are likely the most difficult, most college thing one can do. However, it is times like those that turn B’s into A’s.

As challenging as this next few weeks will be, we all need to remember that we are hustling for a reason. All the long hours of studying, writing, and re-writing will pay off. Those final grades make everything worth it.

A good tip is to try and start final papers and projects early, perhaps over the weekend. Adding paragraphs at a time helps as well, rather than sitting at a screen with writer’s block and ending up with nothing. Tackling assignments little by little will make a world of difference, especially as deadlines appear faster than anticipated. There will be stress and anxiety, but there will also be rewards at the end of it all. It is just going to get worse before it gets better. Brace yourselves, everything will be fine.

Samantha Latos