Beware, students. In the next week or so, you will be bombarded with countless Facebook statuses and tweets about “#finalsweek.” They’re going to be more annoying than finals themselves.
Prepare for dozens of Middleton selfies, people declaring how many cups of coffee they’ve had to drink or even how much Adderall they obtained all in preparation for their spring finals.
Don’t get me wrong. I sympathize with those who have poor stress management skills, but there should be a cap on whining.
As an opinion columnist for The Daily Reveille, it’s my job to whine — although, I prefer the term “opine” — so I recognize the hint of hypocrisy in the above statement.
Nevertheless, I don’t think it is your job as a student to let everyone know how unprepared you are for tests or papers you’ve known about for months.
Instead of guzzling coffee by the gallons, maybe you could have actually read all of those chapters your sociology professor told you to.
Think about all those nights you spent stumbling back from Tigerland. It might have benefited both you and your liver to do your homework, rather than down a few shots of tequila.
But now, you just have 40 pages of essays to write, hundreds of pages of reading to catch up on and a crabby attitude to last you through the rest of the semester. You’re better than that.
There’s a certain dignity in maintaining a cool, unfazed appearance when you’re stressed deep down inside. LSU students lack this dignity, it seems.
The whole world — or the extent of your social media reach — isn’t concerned with your finals week struggles. Your difficult time cramming for calculus is not a unique one, and complaining about a math class that you didn’t bother to drop in time is a little invalid.
LSU itself does a great job of trying to reach out to students having a difficult time. Places like the Center for Academic Success operate every day, but I doubt those people leaving angry reviews about their teachers on Rate My Professor even bothered to get any outside help for difficult classes.
In charge of things like supplemental instructor sessions, private tutoring and numerous on-campus workshops all meant to boost your GPA, the Center for Academic Success is an underrated LSU institution.
As the number of weeks we’ve been in school for the semester reach double digits, you really shouldn’t be off your game.
While finals week unfortunately falls between spring break and the sense of freedom that comes with summer, it is a great time to prove yourself to be the competent student you wanted to be at the beginning of the semester.
A sense of joy almost overwhelms me when I hand in a final I know I aced. Some finals even serve as “fooled you!” moments for those teachers whose face you barely saw because you skipped class so often.
Speaking of teachers, just think about their finals week experience. While you’re enjoying the first few days of your precious summer break, your professor will be hunched over their desk forced to read some freshman’s pathetic interpretation of Sartre’s or Kant’s philosophy.
Or worse, consider the mind-numbing agony of all of those teachers’ assistants who have to enter in all of your Scantrons into the machine.
So for the love of Mike the Tiger, kick finals week in the face, don’t let it turn you into a whiner, and save yourself from a week of unnecessary stress.
SidneyRose Reynen is a 19-year-old film and art history freshman from New Orleans.