J.J. Jenkins is a journalism freshman and Mustang Daily freshman columnist.I refer to this time of the quarter as the doldrums. The time when the end of school is so close as midterms wind up, yet so far away with three weeks remaining until finals.
The anxiety that comes with upcoming finals is only amplified when those tests seem to be the only thing standing between you and a summer filled with sunny days at the beach free from school-related worries.
Plus it seems, judging by recent Facebook status updates, that we are the sole people on the face of the earth who have not tasted the sweet nectar of summer.
My friends, being the kind, considerate people they are, took to social media last week to proclaim their freedom from college or Advanced Placement tests while I procrastinated from doing various projects and assignments.
“Digga done, sucka,” read one of my friend’s statuses who attends the University of California, Berkeley.
I know we do not have to go back to school until a month after Berkeley starts, but that does not stem my jealousy now. I say that Poly should start school in mid-September and get out in early May — that would seem fair to me.
The time between your last midterms and finals week is also mind-numbingly frustrating because, for the most part, midterms ease up during eighth week leaving students with two weeks to contemplate our impending doom, also known as finals.
But I think I have begun to find the cure for spring quarter doldrums, and it does not involve giving up Facebook for a month, because we all know that is not happening. The first known cure is getting out and forgetting.
I know I get bogged down in looking at how many weeks are left, recapping all the projects and assignments I have to do and making sure I get enough sleep to convince my 8 a.m. professors I’m awake.
To combat the restless feeling that occurs when stuck on campus for more than a few days, I try to leave for a couple of hours and forget about school. Sometimes that involves a trip to downtown, to SLO Donut Company or, my favorite, to golf.
You would be surprised at how inexpensive it can be to get off campus, even to golf, when you use student discounts and public transportation. Besides, the benefits you reap from leaving projects behind and having non-party related fun outweigh the cost.
If you have an irrational fear of the bus and cannot get downtown, pick up an on-campus hobby that can provide you and your friends a much needed study break. The Cerro Vista Community Advisers are probably tired of my friends’ use of the pingpong table. (Just do not use it for water pong, they will write you up for those kind of shenanigans on a Friday night — I learned that the hard way.)
In fact, we have contemplated giving up completely on school and going into professional pingpong. I hear it pays good money.
But I cannot spend all my time becoming the next Tiger Woods (on the golf course only, of course) or Olympic pingpong champion. At some point, I have to face the demons and complete some school work.
That is where to-do lists come in. At one point in my life, I thought to-do lists were for moms running errands, but this year, I have quickly become accustomed to writing down everything I have to accomplish.
If you look at my past lists, this freshman column will be featured prominently. The point of the list is not just to plan everything out, but to show you that, in actuality, you do not have as many things to do as you thought.
In the emotions that come with increasing workload, our minds often exaggerate the amount of time we’ll have to spend on each task, probably a primordial trait that humans are born with to combat distractions, like ancient versions of StumbleUpon.com.
If none of my advice seems to work, just remember that, come July, having bored of your old high school friends and family (who has gotten increasingly weird since you left for college) I assure you that you will crave the insanity that comes with staying up until 3 a.m. studying for a midterm.