By Christina Bivona, Inside Columnist
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: finals week. The week we have all been waiting for. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been counting down the seconds until I could spend every waking minute under the eye-frying fluorescent lights of Snell Library.
That wonderful week you get to see what your friends truly look like without makeup on. The week you finally have an excuse not to shower for three days straight, even though you didn’t seem to need an excuse before. The week you have to explain to your parents that yes, you did spend all that money on Dunkin’Donuts, take out and delivery, and you’re still hungry.
Days turn into a blur consisting of paper after paper, study guides for classes you never woke up for and group project meetings where you’re still wondering if that one kid will ever show up. You’ve gotten a tan from staring so hard at your computer screen, and you don’t remember what the gym looks like, even though you’re only wearing workout clothes.
At night, you dream of sugar plum fairies and bottomless gingerbread beers as you drool on yourself on the fourth floor. You’re awakened from your hour-long slumber by the kid in the cubby next to you cracking every bone in his body and the crinkle of a potato chip bag down the hall. You start to feel uncomfortably cozy from the amount of body heat radiating between the bookcases as you curse looking for a nearby outlet. The sweet smells of Rebecca’s Café sandwiches, Domino’s and Chinese food mask the thick air.
It’s the holiday season, or the apocalypse, you’re not really sure anymore since your phone died five hours ago and you don’t know what day it is. When people ask how you are, you simply respond by showing them the size of the bags underneath your eyes. With this kind of baggage, you’ll never find a New Year’s boyfriend – so you swipe right a few times on the other hotties in the library and work on your pick-up lines. “Good thing I brought my library card, cause I am checking you out.”
Within the library walls, you live in a fishbowl. You see everyone you’ve ever met, from that boy you hooked up with freshman year, to the girl who would clip her nails next to you during class – you make sure to get a seat as far away as humanly possible. After circling the floor three times, you finally congratulate yourself on finding the perfect spot, only to look up and see you’re sitting a table across from your ex-roommate’s shining face.
Sleep is something you’ve learned to live without, and standing in line for the bathroom for five minutes has become nothing but normal. Your stomach groans even though you ate 30 minutes ago and you’ve literally run out of BuzzFeed articles to read. You’re just about ready to get “the struggle is real” tattooed on your forehead, but you’re too busy trying to look decent for your Snapchat story. #killme
By the window, you stare longingly outside, daydreaming of lying facedown in a puddle. Anything would be better than this. Your parents keep telling you to “stop whining because this is your job” as they check up on you daily to make sure you’re still alive.
Although the end is near, you can’t seem to get past that 15-page research paper you’ve been putting off – it’s a mountain too tall to climb. As if four finals weren’t enough, you consider handing in those five other assignments you forgot all semester long. Maybe. You pray to the finals gods for mercy and listen to Carrie Underwood sing “Jesus, Take the Wheel” as you sift through 200 note cards. You can only hope for the day you will see sunlight again. All seems lost, but don’t worry, we’ll all make it through this… hopefully.
-Christina Bivona can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy Steven S., Creative Commons
