BY ERICA GUSTAFSON, OPINION EDITOR
In all honesty, I could not be more excited for the coming winter break. A time that I can spend surrounded by all of my close family and friends that I often miss during the fall semester. However, things change also brings one of the most dreaded times of a college semester. Finals week.
Finals week can be one of the most brutal parts of the semester for a college student, and that does not exclude members of the St. Bonaventure community. Though not all students have the same experiences, most people can agree that this coming week of exams, presentations and reports can be nerve-racking.
Personally, I dread the week every single semester. I am typically stressed through most of the semester already when finals week comes barreling into my life like a stampede of bulls. Despite all my efforts to continuously study and work the weeks leading up to it, it still hits me every single time.
The thing about it is that I know my grades are good because I have been working diligently on them all semester. I can’t help but worry. Like many other students, I want to get the best grade I possibly can and pass the class with flying colors.
Despite whatever grade you may already have in a class, no student walks in deliberately trying to get a bad grade on their final. It just doesn’t make sense.
Overall, finals week brings the shaking and brutal feeling of stress. Stress can sometimes eat you up and spit you out as if you were nothing at all.
I recently found a 2020 statistics column on HealthCareers.com y Marija Kovachevska about 35 troubling college student stress statistics and facts. She wrote about statistics and fact results that were found in reported studies.
One of the most prominent statistics was that “63.4% of college students felt overwhelming anxiety in 2018.”
Kovachevska also writes that “approximately 89% of college students are victims of finals week stress, statistics show.” She continues by saying, “finals and midterms were pointed out as the biggest source of stress for 31% of the surveyed college students.”
These numbers do not surprise me one bit, and I would not be surprised if the percentages increased until today. There are so many pressures that go into the finals week apart from actually completing the work itself.
Many students stress about packing and making arrangements to go home while in the middle of the week itself. Others may stress about jobs they might be returning to while away from classes or applying for jobs that enable them to attend college in the first place.
Above all, they stress over getting the work done well for various classes on a strict schedule that is usually set by the university itself.
Amongst all of the chaos and stress that college students may feel, the most important thing they can do is take a break for themselves. I know it is not as easy as it sounds, but it is necessary for one’s mental and physical health.
An easy way to decrease stress and anxiety is by utilizing time management as much as possible during your week of finals. Plan ahead and even write it down when and where you will be each day. This will help give you a visual sense of when you might have breaks where you can take a little bit of time to unwind and give your brain a rest.
Though your grades are important, your personal health is worth so much more in the long run. Remember to take care of yourselves as we dive headfirst into the coming finals week.
