Well, folks, we’ve made it to the end of the semester. Almost. With a week and change left until we are relieved from school duties for a month, students can be found around town cramming for final exams.

It’s an odd practice, cramming for finals. Chances are if you haven’t figured out something or learned something by this point in the semester, you probably won’t in the next few days. Don’t spend your last week of the semester fueled on Adderall and Red Bull, up until the ass crack of dawn trying to figure out that long, letter-filled math equation that your teacher has insisted you memorize by Labor Day. Get the extra couple of hours of sleep, and take your exam with a refreshed state of mind.

This is not to say all people need a full night’s sleep to have a successful Finals week. If you’re one of those students who excels at college—the art of succeeding in both school and social life simultaneously, chances are you’re at the bar on Thursday and acing exams on Friday morning. Why change something that’s not broken? Go enjoy yourself. Ten years from now, you won’t remember whether you got an 86 or an 83 on that Biology final. What you will remember is the memories you made (or lack thereof).

Once you ace your finals, it’s time to head back home for break (sorry commuters and townies). It’s always interesting to see the changes in habits and behaviors amongst old friends upon your reuniting. Sure, you get to briefly see your old pals over Thanksgiving, but not to the depth and degree you will being home for an entire month. Some become passionate about their future careers; others become passionate about getting turnt up every day, and that’s cool too—like previously mentioned, some people have managed to get real good at college. And then some just become tools. We all know them (or maybe some of you reading this are in fact the tool yourself), the one who brags about how good they are at college. “Oh man, this one night I smashed an entire case to myself just during the pregame and then we…” Don’t fall in category three—nobody likes the tool.

And about 10 days after you get the urge to get back to school—a weird thought, but true nonetheless, it will finally be time to make that drive or take that flight back to good ol’ Wayne America. There may be a few new students in your classes, those who transferred at the change of the semester, and there may be a few students you saw in the fall who won’t be back for the spring (maybe even more of those than our administration would like us to believe).

But for those of us who will be back, the spring semester, while originally seeming new and fresh, will quickly become just as stale as the semesters prior. Everyone will find themselves with the same mentality as before—get through this semester, and enjoy the break when it arrives.

So enjoy this break, fellow WSC students. May you all enjoy the holidays and have a happy new year.

Mason Schweizer for The Wayne Stater