By Kara Little, Forum Editor
This week is the week that Susquehanna students returned to campus and fall semester classes resumed.
This week has also been one of the busiest times for me this semester.
Projects after tests after exams after readings after reading responses; it had been a semester full of non-stop due dates. During the time I have had to focus on other things besides schoolwork (which is not much, I may add), I just took time to reflect on how stressed out I have been.
I have experienced a lot of self-doubt, self-criticism, and another existential life crisis throughout the week. My classes are a lot more challenging this semester. As a junior, I am busier academically, due to a heavier workload. I did not have too much time to spend time with my friends that I spent all summer break looking forward to seeing more. I spent a lot of my sophomore year highly involved, whether it would be class work, club meetings, work, studying, and spending time with my friends here at Susquehanna.
At the end of last semester, I no longer participated in a lot of my club memberships, I stepped down from a lot of my leadership positions, I even quit my job.
I stopped being as involved in a lot of the things I used to be involved in, so I could take a semester to relax and focus on my classes.
However, I started to realize that with all my free time that used to be filled with other activities, I have spent procrastinating from my work.
I would sit and watch Netflix for hours, and then I would get stressed out about how I should be doing all of this work. Then, I stop and think about the stress I experienced from the last assignment I had to work on and tell myself that me procrastinating and watching Netflix is a form of “self-care” that I should use to “de-stress,” which is ironically causing more stress.
These two weeks before winter break are what I call “crunch time.” It is a time where final projects, senior seminars and capstones are being completed and presented, and everyone is going into maximum overdrive.
From this first week, I have learned that I not only need to manage my productivity along with my “self-care” activities (like watching Netflix), I have also tried to look back at how much I accomplished this semester this far.
My advice to all students is to focus these next two weeks. You have worked so hard this semester and it would be absurd to give up at this point.
Continue to work hard, strive for the best and finish this semester strong. After all, pain is temporary, and GPA is forever. I wish everyone a great end to the semester and good luck during finals week. And think, after this semester, you can sit and watch all the Netflix you want.
The editorials of The Quill reflect the views of individual members of the editorial board. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire editorial board or of the university. The content of the Forum page is the responsibility of the editor in chief and the Forum editor.
