Written by Jasey Roberts
Picture me in my bedroom at 2AM, sitting on my unvacuumed floor, tighty-whitie clad, and weeping like usual. I had gotten a 54 on my last exam, and I had just commissioned DoorDash to bring me a large calzone from Mac & Bob’s that I could cry into – effectively diminishing my New Year’s goal of a bombastic beach bod by late April. Midterm week was rapidly approaching, along with a looming desire to start practicing trapeze on the ledge of the tallest building I could find.
So, in the haze of my half-digested calzone and solid thirty-two minutes of sleep, I began to hear a voice, or perhaps more of a premonition, maybe. It was a woman’s voice, claiming to be someone from another realm and time. Her name is the Midterm Fairy, and while I’m definitely not qualified to give you advice on your midterm week, she apparently is. Here’s the mad knowledge she laid out for me, in no particular order:
Midterm Fairy’s Doctrine
- Give yourself time to sleep. Given the choice between staying up all night to get something done and just getting a solid 8 hours, you should be going for the latter every single time. Most likely, whatever you need to get done will be easier if you’re driving with a full tank. On top of that, it’s just about being kind to yourself. Even if you miss a deadline, your mental wellbeing is more important than grades. Hot take, I know.
- Feel other people’s pain. Yes, we get it, you have five exams, a research paper, an annotated bib, an oral presentation, and for some reason a doctoral thesis due this week, but so do the rest of us. If all your non-school-related brain power is being used on how much you really hate school this week – I have news for you – you’re going to really hate school this week. Alternative method: listen to other people’s burdens in addition to voicing your own. Recognize that it’s hard for everyone and it just objectively sucks, and somehow it’ll become less hard and objectively sucky.
- Visualize your success. It’s the second semester of school, so chances are, if you’re still here (and breathing), you’ve taken midterms before. Congratulations! Unless that other time(s) was some kind of cosmic fluke, or there’s some kind of AI violation we need to know about, I would implore you to just shut up for a second, breathe, and pat yourself on the back. You’ve done it before, and you’ll do it again. The Midterm Fairy (and her humble messenger) believes in you.
Best,
-Jasey
