End of quarter can be an intensely uncomfortable time.
Since the advent of this ingenious institution of synchronized suffering called Finals Week, eye bags get heavier and smiles gain a tinge of deranged fatigue without fail. I mean, who knew that you could write 40 pages worth of essays, study for four exams in inconvenient seriality, keep up with extracuriculars, and have enough time to go to the bathroom once every five hours?
There are sporadic offerings of solidarity and reprieve that certainly give us the chance to “de-stress” and breathe, if at least for a few moments—so do we pet cute puppies until we rub a bald spot on their fur, chug several liters of boba, jump from power study trail mix station to power study trail mix station. But this doesn’t make returning to the task at hand any easier. We awaken ancient beasts deep within us as we scream into the empty night—the anguish of this necessary time of seeming self-destruction is overwhelming. And it seems like all we can do is wait until the full moon sets and the beast can settle quietly in our chests in waiting for the next battle. But perhaps we need not adopt the approach of the werewolf, but of the lobsters.
As we expand our knowledge base and take on more complex and intense coursework, we have been growing. With every challenge, mistake, and triumph, we have been pushing against the confines of our shell, just on the brink of shattering the fine line running between what we once thought was maybe possible and utterly impossible.
And discomfort of heading into the culmination of these endeavors is not something that can and should be numbed or discarded—but rather, embraced as a necessary agent of change. For it is this very discomfort that signals that we are on the brink of a well-deserved growth and the beginning of a stronger, thicker skin.
So dig your claws deep in the dirt and brace yourself—burrow yourself in the tunnel and power through the challenges that come your way. Sit with your discomfort and address it head on—emerge triumphant or fail and try again.
Remember that you will be finished in a few weeks—and you will be able to look back one day at all of the old shells of impossibility and limitation you have shed behind you and think “Wow…I did that. And I know that I can do it again.”
Channel your inner lobster, shed your shell, conquer these finals, and grow.
(photo credit and cc license)
