OUR VIEW: Pushing through to semester’s end

College is all about survival of the fittest. As the tests, papers and final classes mount up, we are left to wonder who will come out alive and who will throw themselves in the middle of the TSC circle so they can get ran over by a bus.

At times it all just doesn’t seem fair. The mean professors will assign 10 page papers due the Monday after our five day Thanksgiving break and expect us to somehow write it between eating turkey and pie. Not happening. It seems every teacher thinks that their students are only taking one class at a time and are willing to put in every waking moment of study time into pouring over their assigned reading and taking quizzes on Blackboard.

The truth is, however, that students simply do what they can to get by, in hopes of good grades and not ending up trembling by the sides of our beds, pulling our hair out and biting fingernails. No, this kind of behavior never leads to the top of the food chain.

Although, we’re not really sure what sucked us all in to this battle of books versus living normal lives. We may never know. Take a walk around campus today and you’re sure to see at least 43 people with red eyes, coffee and their mouths hanging wide open. We’ve hit the wall, the end of the semester wall. However, so long as we’re still moving, we may somehow make it through mid-December without any permanent damage.

Here are a few tips for the upcoming weeks:

Pace yourself. If possible, keeping a daily planner is always a good idea. If you have to, only plan one day at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed. Writing things down right before you go to bed helps with sleep.

Go over each syllabus for every class and make sure you’re going to have time to complete every assignment. Talk to your professors if you need help with anything. They may give us crap to do over a holiday, but most of them are still understanding.

Trust in the almighty library. There are a lot of good resources in there. Go figure. Plus it’s open until midnight. The TSC computer lab is open until 1:45 a.m. as well. That was a genius idea if I ever heard of one.

If it helps, suck up. Your professors may just love brownies. Don’t expect a better grade for that, but they may just listen to you a little more. Good luck with the next couple of weeks. We’re all in this together. Try not to be the one underneath the bus.