Well, well, well. It’s like déjà vu. We are back to our favorite time of the semester: midterm season! It’s a beautiful and wonderful time for all Tufts students — spending hours in Tisch cubicles, fighting fellow students for a table outside of Kindlevan Café and crashing out in the Tisch basement (a nod to my past article). For my dear, loyal readers, you can already tell how midterm season is going for me with this delayed publication. I hope you all were able to get through the weekend without my profound insights and comedic tone to guide you.
As I sit here writing this column in between unnecessarily complicated problem sets and aimless studying, I can feel an underlying, growing tension bubbling in Tisch: students with their heads in their hands, frantic writing on whiteboards and singular individuals taking up entire tables in the fishbowl with chicken-scratch notes, every Apple product made since 2012 and a variety of unnaturally colored energy drinks. This tension falls at the intersection of the dying novelty that comes with the beginning of a new semester and the looming realization of how cooked we actually are for our classes.
I, personally, have felt this transition in its full effect. At the beginning of this semester, academics and classes were low on my priority list. After an eventful winter break with family and friends, it wasn’t until the first day of classes that I checked Tufts SIS to see where my classes were actually meeting. That trend continued for the first few weeks of classes. I was engaged in my extracurriculars, hanging out with new people and old friends and, ultimately, truly immersing myself in the college experience. During this period, I played the ‘screw-my-future-self-over game’ where I would wait for the longest possible time before starting an assignment. Obviously, that game is biting me in the butt right now. The number of times I told myself, “I’ll worry about this when I study for the midterm,” was astronomical. And guess what time it is: It’s time to study for the midterm. A little piece of advice for you all — do not play that game.
While I can sulk in my own situation, I know that this is not a personal experience. It seems as if every single Tufts student is engrossed in midterm prep and anxiety. This past weekend I was at a party on our actual campus (insane, I know), and in the midst of being in a sweaty basement rubbing arms with absolute strangers, I overheard two people talking about a recent midterm in one of the classes I’m taking. Obviously, I immediately joined the conversation, and we chatted about how horrible that exam was. (We were praying on the downfalls of others. All hail the curve.)
I really think that situation portrays the grip midterms have on us as a student body. At the moment, I didn’t think much about it (because of totally legal activities), but the next morning, as I was nursing a completely unrelated headache, I realized how strange of an experience that was. How, on a weekend night in a basement with music blasting, do I find myself talking with three strangers about a midterm? And thinking more about it, why is it a relatively normal thing that occurs at Tufts?
In a weird, peculiar way, it makes sense. After spending almost two years here, I am pretty confident to state that Tufts is not a typical university. Each week, we grind thinking to ourselves, ‘I just have to make it to the weekend,’ and then, without fail, we end up talking about a recent midterm at a party on a Saturday night. It’s a perpetual cycle — one that is exhausting and sometimes ridiculous but ultimately an essential part of Tufts.
As students, this strange relationship of geeked vs. locked is a crucial aspect of our college careers. The fact that all of us are in this bizarre balancing act together is kind of comforting; to know that the person sitting across from me in this Tisch basement cubicle is going through the same thing I am going through helps me keep pushing forward. The midterm season is no doubt brutal, but we can find solace knowing that we’re in this together.
So, to my dear readers, best of luck on these midterms. Take a deep breath, go for a walk and remember that this will all be over soon (just in time for finals).
Procrastinating,
Ben Rachel
