Eleven days. Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.
That’s all that’s left of this semester.
First and foremost, to those who will be graduating, I stand and applaud you for making it through your time here. If you will not be moving on to a higher degree, come visit once the Hub and Reitz Union are renovated.
For the freshmen who enrolled early — good on you for doing so — and are almost done with your first semester, hopefully the accelerated pace of summer prepared you for Fall and Spring. This gig will get somewhat easier but to quote Mad-Eye Moody from the “Harry Potter” series: CONSTANT VIGILANCE! I speak from experience when I say it’s extremely easy to get lax and take your foot off the gas just enough to fall behind.
To those who are struggling in classes, the deadline to withdraw is Friday. Before exercising that option, I would recommend talking with your professors to see if you’re actually lagging behind. I thought I had a grade of 55 in Reporting before talking to professor Mike Foley. I have at least a 73.5. If I had not done that, I would have withdrawn from a class I was passing.
If there was ever a time to find another gear, this is it. A shorter semester means each grade counts more in the long run, so finishing strong is important. If our football team can go through practices in this god-forsaken Florida sun, then the least we can do is study in air-conditioned rooms and give our best for just 11 more days.
But giving your best doesn’t mean overworking yourself and burning out just before a final exam. Work at a moderate pace, if you have the luxury to do so. Take some time to de-stress yourself by hanging out with friends or something as simple as slowly enjoying your favorite meal. Even play some video games. I’ve written about them so much this semester I’d be remiss in ignoring them now.
Keep moving forward, even if it seems everyone else is moving forward faster. You got into UF because you’re good at what you do, whether it be math, theater, animation, writing or something else equally hard to master. This isn’t Santa Fe College; we’re a prestigious university with strict standards — not to take anything away from SFC, though. My first two years of higher education were there, and I thoroughly enjoyed both my classes and the atmosphere.
As an aside, please fill out course evaluations if you have time. They actually do make differences for later classes. Multimedia Reporting is a terrible, terrible, terrible — I cannot stress how terrible the class itself is, even if it’s taught by someone who is in agreement with how terrible it is — class and is finally getting revamped for Fall semester. The reason it is getting the revamp is because of all the negative feedback from evaluations to recommendations from the college’s advisory council.
It’s the two-minute warning, the bottom of the ninth inning, the white flag is waving for the final lap.
Eleven days. Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.
You got this. I got this. We all got this.
Logan Ladnyk is a UF journalism junior. His columns appear Tuesdays.
