It's Hell Week...Grab Your Red Bull

It's true, we should perhaps have written those papers that are due this week during break. We could have studied for that final tomorrow over the weekend. We probably shouldn't have gone out all weekend. We probably shouldn't have watched the finale of The Hills (oops) when we should have been reading that last Shakespeare play. But, hey, this is college and it's probably more realistic to realize that we're just not going to.

Today, I was trying to find a place to write a paper in The Pub and it was like a war zone. Why aren't there more outlets in that place? Unless you'd been there since noon, getting an outlet was completely out of the question. I walked around campus today and it struck me how harried everyone looked-bags under the eyes, clothes that look like they've been slept in, set jaws, and determined faces. The line for coffee was heinous, even at nine o'clock in the morning.

It is upon us. The week from hell. The week that every that has been threatening to happen-is going to. The work that you've been putting off for weeks-has caught up. The teacher that was super nice all semester-will probably turn down that extra credit assignment that you just remembered to turn in. The partner you really like in class-turns out to be the laziest person you've ever met. You're running on three hours of sleep-no chance of a longer night in sight.
Hey, it happens. It's not our fault. We're college students. It is necessary to have that added thrill of possibly not making it through to the end of the semester. We are all guilty of that little twinge of doubt and the wish that it was the holidays already. I know I am. I found myself spacing over lines of poetry, and instead wondering whether or not my parents got my Hannukah presents that I sent them and if they did-more importantly what am I receiving. I watched The Hills finale instead of memorizing that French poem I have to recite on Wednesday. Everyone does it. It's called procrastination and this time of year it's like cabin fever.

So riddle me this: Is the challenge of getting everything done better than actually getting everything done on time?

Sometimes, I think that the adrenaline that you get from the possibility of failure is better than finishing your work all on time, in a highly organized fashion. I mean it's priceless really-that last bit of focus that suddenly comes on in the most futile of hours and the most crucial of moments. And you feel like you could take on the world. You could tackle any challenge that your life could possibly create for you and nothing at all that pertains to trouble could scare you. At the same time, we are seeing our strengths at their best. It's the ability to survive anything, and we are able to test our limits and really show ourselves that nothing we are asked to do and nothing that we dream can defeat us.

So do we flourish in our achievements with this kind of rush? Is it better to get your work done in this fashion? Do we get more out of it because we succeed and are victorious in this kind of craziness? Can you actually get high off life?

It's in these moments that we suddenly see with great clarity that life is just like that proverbial box of chocolates: you get what you are given-and you have to make the best of it.