The last few weeks for me have been summed up by training, cramps, back pain, caffeine and carb loading.
You probably think I’m running a marathon — I wish! That would be much easier. Alas, I am preparing for something far more grueling, extremely taxing on the body and the mind: Yale’s midterm season.
Training? That’s hours spent training my brain to memorize anything and everything. Cramps? Hand cramps from writing copious amounts of notes and practice exams. Back pain? I’m hunched over my computer more than eight hours a day. Caffeine? Self-explanatory. Carb loading? This one has nothing to do with midterms in particular, but I just love bread and anything adjacent, so that’s what I’ve been eating, per usual.
Having four semesters of midterms under my belt, I’ve learned the excruciating truth: midterms at Yale are a marathon, not a sprint. Midterms pile up, one after another, never allowing you to catch a break. After running 13.1 miles, feeling so accomplished, there’s still 13.1 to go. A midterm in the middle of September and one in the last week of classes? Yes, that checks out. It is a series of constant gasps for air. Unlike midterms, finals are a sprint. A week-long 100 meter dash, where the gold medal at the finish line is winter break.
If you are thinking to yourself, “What do you mean midterms? I have none! I don’t have to sit down for a single exam!” I’m afraid you have been deceived by the “Triple P Threat”: papers, projects and presentations. These assignments sneak up on you and can be even worse than sit-down exams. They demand a level of perfection that’s difficult to attain. You think you have it under control, then it’s 11:51 p.m., and you just submitted a paper with only eight minutes to spare.
Two weeks ago, I stayed up late on Friday and Saturday. Not because I was in the backyard of a frat until the wee hours of the morning, but rather because I was writing the two papers and memo I had due on Sunday night. Once the final paper was submitted, I thought I’d feel a weight lifted off my shoulders — a sigh of relief. Yet, I had a midterm on Wednesday that I needed to study for — a sigh of a different sort.
I’m someone who has always enjoyed school. I love taking interesting courses and learning new things. Yet tests and essays always complicated that relationship. Trying to learn random facts just to regurgitate them on an exam and then forget them later or cranking out a paper on a topic I’m not passionate about challenges the enjoyment of school.
Nevertheless, something interesting happened to me this midterm season. Besides the time crunch and stress, I was enjoying the process. I feel weird writing that out, but I was genuinely so interested in the topics of my papers that writing them felt — dare I say — not that bad? And the midterm I was studying for that Wednesday? The material fascinated me. I did not feel like I was just writing to write; I was invested in the topic and inspired as I wrote. And I wasn’t just studying to study; I was internalizing the material and thinking about how it applied to my own life.
Call me crazy — and I’m sure the lack of sleep is making me a little crazy — but after crossing the finish line of the midterm marathon, I think I’m ready to run a real one.