It has arrived. That point towards the end of the semester where (1) the multitude of sleepless nights, (2) hours of stress and anxiety, and (3) times where you need to finish an assignment using (1) caffeine, (2) adrenaline, and (3) sheer willpower can no longer be ignored; they compound together, creating a physical weight over your shoulders that you carry until you finish your very last final. And even then, you continue to carry some of that weight with you until final grades are released and you can finally delete the countless and now (1) unnecessary files, (2) assignments, and (3) formulas that you no longer need on your phone and laptop.
There’s a week and a half left in the semester. On one hand, many of us are thrilled to be rid of the perpetual responsibilities and stress from taking classes. But on the other hand, there’s still much to accomplish and finish within these last few days of the semester. Final projects, presentations, papers, quizzes, exams, discussions, and other assignment formats are all to be jam-packed into our schedules for these last 8 days of classes. With such a large mountain of work remaining in the semester, it’s becoming difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The folks at The Stute have also been facing the effects of burnout. With the (1) weather improving, (2) morale decreasing, and (3) deadlines quickly approaching, it’s becoming more difficult to (1) endure the meticulousness required by layout, (2) the intense communication required to keep our organization running, and (3) the ungodly hours we put into producing the paper. I’m being dramatic, but still, (1) layout is hard, (2) the communication flow for The Stute is insane once you’re fully submerged into it, and (3) Wednesdays are solely reserved for Stute-related business.
Someone who was probably very intelligent and important once said, “All good things come in threes.” In general, the auspicious value of the number three is widely present. For one, there’s the rule of three which states: “Any ideas, thoughts, events, characters or sentences that are presented in threes are more effective and memorable.” Additionally, there’s the classic phrase “third time’s a charm,” often meaning that a third attempt at something will lead to success because of the luckiness of the number three.
And so, as I’ve enumerated in this Editorial, something good must come out of the hours of work we all put into this semester. Place your trust in the luckiness of the number three for the end of the semester. And while it may seem impossible to trust an arbitrary concept with no proof of fruition, why not give it a try? It might just help ease your burnout and help you plan for the rest of this seemingly never-ending semester.
I’ve outlined the rest of my semester with three goals: (1) finishing off my assignments for the rest of the semester, (2) planning the last few issues of The Stute, and (3) acing my finals, which I am heavily manifesting by writing it here. For The Stute, it’s (1) producing today’s issue, (2) putting together our last normal issue of the semester on April 29th, and (3) creating the graduation issue to come out on May 20th.
Remember, burnout isn’t forever; we’ve made it this far, and we will make it to the end. And at the end of every journey, there’s always something to look forward to. In our case, it’s (1) summer, (2) summer, and (3) summer!
The Stute Editorial is an Opinion column written by the current Editor in Chief of The Stute to address and explain editorial decision making, discuss news and media issues, and develop a sense of trust and transparency between readers and members of The Stute.
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