The winter blues, or as they call it in the medicinal biz, "seasonal affective disorder," is a phenomenon that does not distinguish between age, creed or color. Whether you’re killing the proverbial game as an academically exceptional, sexually active frat star or you’re more of the type to quietly mill about one of Gainesville’s many coffee shops and debate whether latter-day Morrissey matches the height of his lyrical prowess during his time with The Smiths (hint: it doesn’t), the slight fluctuation in temperature and ever-subtle changing of leaf color leaves many curled up in bed.
For college students, the winter blues are exacerbated by the exciting, riveting period of time known as finals. We’ll concede that finals seem to hit non-liberal arts majors harder, what with your theorems, labs and what-have-you, but the stress of finals, combined with the omnipresent threat of entering the real world, irritates and afflicts us all.
Overcoming one’s winter blues — and finals by association — means acting with purpose, discipline and perspective. No, your bed is not an appropriate place to study, comfy though it may be: Assuming you’re depressed AND stressed about finals, you’re only making it harder on yourself. Likewise, as necessary as a session of Token Tuesday down at the Top may be, science and pop culture have shown alcoholism has never been all that effective of a coping mechanism.
Depression can be a nightmare to fend off, and the pressure applied by finals certainly makes retreating into bed or a bottle seem almost reasonable. With that in mind, there are a few things we recommend you do in the week ahead to keep both your insanity and your GPA afloat.
First and foremost, take some time to step outside. It’s going to be easy and incredibly tempting to stay indoors for a solid portion of the next week, in the process lying to both yourself and your friends about how much studying you’re actually getting done. Even though it might not seem like you’ll be able to fit it into your oh-so-busy schedule, take a break.
We can’t emphasize this one enough: Sleep. We at the Alligator know perhaps better than most that sleeping and being a college student is an inherent contradictory proposition. Believe us, we’re sympathetic to the cause. But, if we’ve learned anything in our time here, it’s that if you’re going to bomb an exam, you’re going to feel much better having done so with four hours of sleep rather than none.
It is unfortunate finals coincide with a time of year that is wrought with emotion. For some, holidays and imminent trips to see families sometimes serve to stir up even more emotions, rather than act as comfort. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, finals, like the semester, will end. We can’t promise that you’ll feel better once they do, but you won’t have to get up at 7:30 a.m. anymore… at least until next semester begins.
