Anya Mullen – Opinions Editor

I don’t think I’m the only student who gets stressed and overwhelmed in November and December when final projects and presentations are piling up and exams are looming around the corner. In fact, I think it would be difficult to find a student who doesn’t get stressed during this busy time of year. It’s especially hard to study when the snow falls as early as it did this year, and all you want to do is ski, or build a snowman, or get into the holiday spirit. 

Photo courtesy of Anya Mullen

What always happens to me around this time of the semester is that I look at my to-do list and I see so much to do that I freeze and end up doing none of it, pushing it to tomorrow, and working on other things instead that aren’t as important or time-sensitive as the things I should be doing.

This semester, for the first time in my two and a half years at Bishop’s, I think I have found a pretty good life/school balance. It’s something I would recommend to anyone who is feeling stressed about all the schoolwork they need to do. What happened this year is that I got an unexpected reset. My friend from home was on her reading week and was visiting Ottawa and Montreal, and a last-minute decision brought her to Bishop’s so that we could spend a couple of days hanging out. 

The timing was perfect. Just as I was about to hit my mental block, my freeze amidst so many assignments, she showed up, and I wanted to hang out with her. Getting to show a friend around Lennoxville, to mix up my daily life a little bit, was exactly what I needed. It gave me the ability to put my homework in perspective. I realized that always being stressed wouldn’t help me be productive. What will help me be productive is the realization that by getting a little bit done every day and focusing on one thing at a time, everything will get finished. It’s my fifth exam season at Bishop’s, and everything got done in the other four, and life went on, and this semester will be no different. Without rushing myself to do work and just getting things done where I can, the same amount gets done with a lot less stress and much more enjoyment. I like what I’m learning at BU, but it’s easy to forget that when exams are coming up. This year, I was able to give myself the mental deep breath that I needed to have a more enjoyable month of November. 

My friend came to visit, and I showed her the area. We played lots of crib, and we cooked some delicious food. I realized that it was totally fine to put off my homework for one more day, that all I had to do was calm down my anxious thoughts long enough to put everything into a little bit of perspective. 

So, if you get the chance, make sure to sit down and do some art, play a game with your roommates or go for a walk in the snow. Look forward to both your schoolwork and what you get to do when you’re done for the day, and suddenly those hours of studying and homework might feel both more productive and more fun.