Published: April 27, 2026
The Finals Are Coming
As mentioned in my first blog, "Why Millennial Adapting," I'm currently a college student. A rising senior to be precise. At the moment I'm earning my bachelor's in English, but I'm highly considering rolling right into a master's program after graduation next spring. That said, I've felt the burnout creeping in for a solid year now and would love nothing more than to take a break, and maybe look for work instead. Balancing school, plus an internship, plus marriage and kids has me feeling stretched thin—and next semester is going to be even busier. But that decision is a lot like the nagging thought to cut off my hair after growing it out forever; the thought comes on strongly out of nowhere, and I can't (i.e., should not) make that choice in the moment. I must wait, or likely face regret. This advice to myself is especially pertinent since it's almost finals week, ergo I'm feeling extra stressed. So, I'm not saying no to more school yet, and will wrestle with that decision in six-ish months or so. That said, is there ever a week in college that isn't full of stress induced decision making?
I feel that the end of the semester right before finals is when I always find myself the most panicked. Not because I have to study (though there is that), but because, along with wrapping up assignments, I have to decide about my next round of courses! That task always seems to come out of nowhere. It feels as though the semester just started and I'm already needing to stare down my transcript. Thankfully, I'm A-type to a fault, so I keep a running list of what courses I'm interested in, and what I still need to take. That helps to mitigate some of the stress of choice when the “time to register” email hits my inbox. But even with a list, the absolute chaos of trying to line up college classes (including backup choices) that align with my personal calendar, while confirming with my advisor, and getting signed up before all courses are taken, is an absolute mind game when I barely have two functioning brain cells left at this point in the semester. All of that while still keeping up with current classes, work, and general life is an absolute drain. Just typing that out made me tired all over again.
As an adult commuter student, I can't imagine doing all of that plus dealing with the move-in and move-out dates as a student living on campus! I'm a student, but also a member of a parent group for my college on Facebook, and this time of the semester my feed is always flooded with panicked parent posts. Students are looking for roommates, non-locals or new students and their families trying to understand schedules for move to figure out when to buy plane tickets, where to stay, where to store their stuff, etc. It's a mad dash season! I see it in my peer's faces as this week approaches every year. The list of things to do gets longer all while finals are bearing down on us. It's a wonder some of us are functioning, but it does explain why the emotional support beverage (a.k.a. coffee) lines keep getting longer
Along with general list panic, I have several things on my classwork docket to do. But it's not a ton of work, just a few longer assignments, so I actually let myself take half of yesterday off. No work, no thinking, just vegging out and it was glorious…for five minutes. As my fellow anxious A-type peers can attest, it felt horribly wrong to do nothing. I'm in that mental state of triple checking my to-do list constantly. Even though I have my work scheduled and planned to the hour I constantly feel like I'm forgetting something! I know I'm not. I logically know it's just panic induced by a semester of never not being busy. But, unlike Rock-Paper-Scissors where paper always beats rock, logic hardly ever wins during finals week.
So, if you have a college student in your life right now, give them some grace (and maybe some coffee money), because they are doing their best right now. In about three weeks we should start acting like functioning humans again. We might even have a conversation with you that doesn't involve the topic of class for the first time in months.
Running on caffeine and dreams,
Your Millennial Adapting, B