The snow has finally melted, the sun is shining and quadding season has officially begun. But while signs of summer are flowering in Riverdale, students across campus are locked either in their rooms or the library preparing for the long weeks ahead.
“It’s my favorite time of the year and I can’t even enjoy it,” freshman Ali Ward said.
With finals beginning in less than two weeks, students can find stress levels building to an all-time high. The procrastination harmlessly done earlier in the year has students panicking to hand in their work before the semester ends.
“It seems like all my professors assigned papers and projects to be due at the end of the class. So naturally I let them sit all semester and now I’m in the library all the time,” Kevin Young said.
O’Malley library, often renamed “Club O’Malley” during finals week because of all the students pulling all-nighters, seems to be the place to be in the days winding down to exams.
“Even just trying to find a spot to sit down and study in the library is enough to make you start freaking out, it’s like the whole school tries to be in there at once” Young added.
When studying goes up, time to hang out with friends inevitably goes down. While students know that schoolwork is a top priority, no one likes to admit that his or her social life probably has to be set aside for a little bit.
“I know that I have to start studying, but it is so hard when its finally nice outside. I just want to sit on the quad with my friends. But even when I do I’m thinking about studying, so either way I am completely stressed-out” sophomore Jackie Staino said.
Stress, however, is not always a bad thing for students.
The University of Buffalo conducted a study of the effects of stress on rats. Results showed that the stressed rats made significantly fewer mistakes as they went through the maze compared to the non-stressed rats.
Patrick Estanbouli, a double major in psychology and communications, agrees that being stressed is not always harmful. “There is an ideal stress level for each of us which pushes us to do our best. While too much stress can be detrimental to our health, without a little bit of it we can quickly become unmotivated,” Estanbouli said.
School-related stress can even be a unifying force for the student body. Mutual sleep deprivation, increases in coffee intake and too many hours spent in the library can help to create new friendships. “I met this girl in the library who was just as stressed as I was, we actually ended up becoming friends,” Ward said.
While finals can certainly put a damper on the end of the school year, students should still take the time to have fun and reflect on all the memories created through another year at MC.
“It’s survival mode right now, but I can’t believe that my first year of college is already over,” Young said.