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The Rotunda
Thursday, May 15, 2025

Spring Semester? Nope, Stress Semester

Second half of spring semester. While it seems to be the part of the semester that goes by the fastest, has the most events, and even has the best weather — it is also possibly the most frustrating andtime-consuming semester of the school year.

These past two weeks have been the busiest of my semester so far. My suitemates are in shock when I actually walk into my room, sit and stay because it has become such a rare occurrence. And I’m noticing that everyone else is dealing with the exact same issue.

All I ever see are people rushing around campus, going to meetings, and I swear if I hear, say, or see the word “raincheck” one more time I might make that word taboo in my vocabulary for the rest of my college years. It is beyond impossible to make plans with anyone lately because everyone has 50 things to do within a seven-day period.

So why is it that this part of the semester is so busy? Does the sunshine make everyone suddenly have a social life? Or maybe it just brightens our vision and lets every student actually realize they have so much more homework than they realized they did. Is it just me, or does it seem like every project, essay and homework assignment is being piled on at the same time?

This isn’t a knock at the professors giving the assignments; I’m sure they were always there, but when did they all appear?! I can’t even remember a night in the past two months where I’ve been able to sit on my bed and think, “I don’t have anything else to do tonight,” and that includes weekends, I might add.

If anyone else is stressing out the way I am, I have some advice for you: chill! Go for a drive, even for just 10 minutes, or go out to dinner with your friends to somewhere you don’t normally go. Just take an hour out of your time and chill.

The end of the semester is stressful enough without adding stress to it, which of course we all do when we don’t finish our assignments and try to do them all last minute (yes you have done it, no you cannot lie and say you haven’t).

But really, whatever calms you down, do it. For me, it’s music. Just sitting on my bed, relaxing, shutting my eyes and putting on whatever music I’m in the mood for at the moment.

Oh, and without homework included, there’s the stress of extracurricular activities. As fun as they may be, they can add just as much frustration on top of everything else.

Let me guess, you have a meeting one day, an event the next day, maybe a project due in- between, some random homework assignments clustered in there and then another meeting at some point as well? Yeah? Join the club — we’re making T-shirts that say, “If you saw a blur, you just saw me” on them.

As far as stepping away from that — you don’t have to. Just ask some others to help you with stuff in your organizations or get everyone together for studying or a project or something. It never has to be all or nothing.

Where did the extra hour of sleep go? What about the hour to watch “The Walking Dead” for those of you who have hopped on that bandwagon? “Supernatural” is better. Just saying. But it’s true. Anyway, I used to actually have time on my hands to do things and now it seems like I have no time to just sit and even contemplate what I’m doing — I’m in my own world from the time I open my day-planner to when I plop into my bed for a much-needed sleep.

So, let’s go through all the events that are just going to pile on to my to-do list, and I’m sure everyone else’s, in the next four weeks (which, for those of you who do not know, is how many weeks are left before the end of classes): we have a Walk and Roll around Farmville on April 5; Bandfest coming up on April 12 at the Student Union; everyone’s favorite weekend, Spring Weekend, April 12-14; and Relay for Life on April 20.

Wow. So, if you have nothing to do for the next four weekends ... I just gave you something for almost every weekend, so no complaining that there is nothing to do!

*** This editorial is an opinion stated by the writer and does not represent the views of The Rotunda or Longwood University.