Bring on the Finals (and Bring on Summer!)

I have an exam in a couple hours, and I probably need to start refreshing my mind soon. However, this exam (in Educational Psychology) only counts as much as the other four tests I had throughout the semester (16%), so I do not want to freak myself out by doing anything different than I normally would before a test!
See, I have a pretty different mindset about finals week than the majority of college students.  Unlike people who see this as a time to cram a textbook into their memory, I optimistically just see it as a time to prove that I wasn't just a body sitting mindlessly in the classroom all semester.
This may seem like a novel idea, or people may be like, "Easy for you to say, education major!" but to those people, I just say this: relax (and also, until you are in control of a classroom of kids and what they do all day, don't talk to me about easy). For those of you who are still skeptical, I wasn't always an education major. Before that, I tried a year of English, and the year before, a whole lot of psychology (the science with labs kind, not the artsy kind). No matter what I was studying, I never once panicked for finals.(I mean, sure, maybe I did a little freshman year when I got a concussion two days before my biggest final, but that's a totally different story...) Maybe I was pretty calm because I've never been too worried about tests, or maybe it's because I understood that finals week doesn't live up to the hype. It is basically just a week of tests, which you've done all semester, except this time, you don't even have to go to class! Your only responsibility (other than taking care of yourself and maybe working) is to study.

 

Finals week can be a piece of (cup)cake! Or at least bearable.

With that being said, I have a finals-week-specific pet-peeve: all-nighters. When people pull all-nighters thinking they're gonna get a sticker or a cookie or even a pat on the back for how many hours they spent cooped in the library looking frazzled. Want a study tip (I know you don't, I'm just giving unsolicited advice)? Do not pull all-nighters. I repeat: DO NOT pull all-nighters. No matter what. Seriously, it baffles me how many people stay in the library until 4 AM and then get 30 minutes of sleep before going to Starbucks for an expresso shot or five. You are not doing your brain any favors by forcing it to stay awake for over 24 hours. At all. And, sidenote: you're not fooling anyone. The reason you had to stay so late/early is because half of your time was spent on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or if you're not into that normal stuff, World of Warcraft (just kidding; if that's your thing, go for it). There, I said it. And I feel better already. I also feel better because by the time I finished writing this post... I finished my final final! Woohoo! Yay! Hey summer! Long time, no see!

Maybe now that it's summer I'll have more time to...
1. Make money so I can do fun things with my friends.

 

Hopefully the summer will include more good times like the Avett Brother's concert I went to a month ago with my lovely friends!

2. Spend quality time with my family. I loved seeing everyone at the March of Dimes walk on Saturday, and I'm excited to be at home this summer with my parents and brother (we'll see how long that lasts....hee hee, just kidding Mom and Dad!).

 

Tag, you're it! You would think after walking 3.5 miles two little (okay, big) boys would be tired, but this picture shows they (and their sister) are indeed energizer bunnies!

Song of the blog: "Schools Out" (I know, could I be any more cliche? In my defense, John suggested I use this) by Alice Cooper but performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks because I'm super weird and since I was sheltered when I was little I only knew the version on my Alvin cassette tape.... No shame (well maybe just a little).
Lyrics of the song: "Schoooool's out for summer! Schooooooool's out forever!"