1. It hits you at your weakest point. You’ve been amping up for break, enjoying every moment of freedom, and then it’s Monday and you’re back on campus and you realize that you are so done with all of this. You go from sunny beaches and Netflix marathons to papers and essays and so much reading to do. All of a sudden your free time seems more valuable and each homework assignment seems like a giant boulder to carry up the mountain.
2. There’s so much homework. Somehow tests and midterms always seem to either go before break or after, and it always is terrible. Half the time you spend break enjoying your time, only to return to reality and realize that you have three midterms, two papers, and five books to read by Wednesday. And, for some unexplainable reason, the work got harder while you were gone. Something that you were able to write the day it was due suddenly becomes a week-long trial.
3. You have to make important decisions. Often the final drop dates for classes fall right after break, which means that you come back to whatever your grade currently is, realize the possibility of failure, and then have to decide whether it’s worth it to get a bad grade or just drop the class and waste money. Sometimes all that slacking in the first half of the semester comes back to bite you in the ass and you just don’t have the energy to kick it into high gear and pull a passing grade off.
4. Speaking of energy, you have none. All those lazy days just sleeping in and having a good time come back to haunt you since it’s back to waking up early, trying to squeeze in time to do everything, and stressing out over every other thing. If you’re spending all your time trying to catch up on grades and work thing out then you’re missing out on sleep. If you’re sleeping then sometimes your grade slips. Throw in gym time, work, some small amount of free time, time spent cooking and eating, and not enough hours in the day to do it all. It’s just exhausting.
5. The ‘When Will It Be Over’ Race to Finals. After break, it always seems that amidst the mass of work and tests, there’s the deadline of finals to look forward to. It’s both a horrible realization of how little time there is until then, but also a hopeful light that the end of the semester is near and summer is nigh. The final papers and exams are exhausting to study for, but just knowing that a longer break is on the way can help. Currently, there’s only a month to two of my finals and a month and half to the others, but being an English major has its perks since my finals are a bit easier than, say, math. Still, just knowing that there’s all this work to get good grades, keep scholarships, get new ones, and hold my head over the water to see graduation on the horizon is stressful, exhausting, and causing some serious Mid-Term Fatigue.

When will it be over?

Are you suffering from Mid-Term Fatigue? What do you do to get through?