There are certain notifications you just don’t want to see on Canvas. An announcement from your professor is already enough to make you pause what you’re doing and check what it says. But when the announcement contains “exam,” “review,” or “room assignment” in it, suddenly you have a lot more questions.
What exam? When is it? How much do I know? Why does everything seem to be happening at once?
It’s midterm season, and I would love to say I’m handling it well. I’m studying. Well, I’m trying to study. I’ll open my notes, get through a few things, check my phone for a second, and somehow end up doing everything except what I originally sat down to do.
Then I remember I have an exam coming up, put my phone down, and try again.
And yet, for some reason, the only thing going through my head is Matthew McConaughey saying his iconic phrase, “Alright, alright, alright.”
Not a study tip. Not a motivational speech. Not even a helpful reminder to get my life together. Just three words, delivered with the confidence of a man who apparently has everything figured out.
Meanwhile, I’m checking Canvas for the fifth time, as if the professor might have secretly decided to cancel the exam since the last time I looked. Maybe the room changed. Maybe, just maybe, the announcement will say something that makes my life a little easier.
It usually doesn’t.
Instead, I find another reminder of something I need to do, another deadline to remember, or another detail I somehow missed the first time around. At some point, checking Canvas stops being productive and starts becoming a habit I can’t explain. I know the assignments are there. I know the exams are coming. And yet, I keep refreshing the page like I’m waiting for breaking news.
And when you finally sit down to take a break, you remember something else you forgot to do.
Alright, alright, alright.
At this point, I’m not even sure whether the quote is supposed to calm me down or make the situation funnier. It certainly isn’t helping me remember anything from class. I could be staring at a page of notes, trying to understand what I’m reading, and somehow my brain decides this is the perfect time to replay a random movie line.
Alright, alright, alright.
Honestly, I think I’ve accepted that this is my response to everything now. Another exam on the calendar? Alright, alright, alright. Spent more time on my phone than I meant to? Alright, alright, alright. Looked at my study guide and realized how many questions I still had left? You guessed it.
I’m not saying the phrase magically makes my problems disappear. My assignments are still due, my exams are still happening, and my phone is probably going to distract me again in about five minutes. But at least for a second, I can stop thinking about everything at once.
Because the truth is, I can always find something else to do. There’s always another way to prepare, another thing to review, or another task I could finish. At some point, though, I have to sit down, do what I can, and accept that I can’t spend every minute thinking about what else I should be doing.
Does that mean I’ll stop checking my phone? Probably not. Will my phone suddenly become less interesting than my notes? Probably not.
But for now, I’m going to get back to my notes, and try to make it through the rest of midterm season.
Alright, alright, alright.
