(Trying To) Chill Out About Finals.

This week marks the last week of classes for the semester, before *gulp*... final exams.

So far this semester I've done pretty well. Except for a few slip-ups (33% on a Calc Test... it's getting dropped), I've had pretty much A's in all my classes. But these are my first final exams of college and I'm pretty nervous! I've been studying consistently this week as well as a little bit last week, but I can't help but remember the things I had trouble with in all of my courses, and it's psyching me out.

In times like this, I try to remember things that my dad used to say to me in high school (which, unfortunately, I didn't really listen to at the time). "Be the best you can be" is one of them, and it's been a useful thing for me to remember because you really can't do better than your best. So if you do honest work and study as much as you can, there's not much else you can do. Besides, if you're doing those things you're far more likely to get good test grades than if you sit on facebook all night and then try to study the morning before your test for an hour at the breakfast table. I know this from experience.

Another thing my dad used to tell me, although I don't have a clean-cut quote of it, was something to the effect that your physical health and your emotional health are important, and have significant effect on your thinking. That is, if something's bothering you and you don't acknowledge it, or if you're not eating right or taking care of your body, these things can affect the way you think, your study habits and how well you do in school. Of course there are always exceptions, but I think this makes sense. So when I study, I try to eat right and stay chill, no matter how easy it may be to eat only french fries for dinner (which I've done) rather than a balanced meal, or to freak out from anxious energy (which I've done) rather than taking a deep breath.

One more thing that my dad actually just told me on the phone the other night was "when you're walking down a path, you can only take one step at a time". You can't do all your studying at once, and as much as you plan, plans change. And I'm not trying to get too cheesy here, but I think sometimes it's good to remember things like these, because no matter how hard you work you're still human.

I'm sure I could make a book out of the useful advice that my dad has given me, but I'll save more for another time. So I guess the moral of this story is stay positive, work hard, eat well, sleep well, drink water, be the best you can be, etc. Hopefully, I'll be able to do all this and score well on my finals!

Thanks for reading!