The three weeks that fall between Thanksgiving and winter break can be the most draining. They feel like they might never end while simultaneously feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. As the semester comes to a close, it’s really hard to process how quickly it has flown by.

Looking back, this semester has certainly been my most difficult one yet. Balancing a more demanding position on The Carroll News and a full course schedule on top of other priorities in my life has challenged me and taught me way more than I ever expected.

There was a point, about halfway through the semester, where all these commitments stressed me out to the point where I felt like it was beyond my control. As a result, it was the first time I ever really started to genuinely look forward to a semester coming to an end and, worse, eventually graduating. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, the idea of wanting to wish time away and feeling resentment towards Carroll was an unusual and unsettling feeling for me, as I’m always wishing that these years would slow down. Instead, I was wishing for a time when I wasn’t overwhelmed with school, facing the pressures of figuring out my future, and everything else in my life that flooded my mind with feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt.

The truth is, it wasn’t the fault of my workload or the pressure of balancing all of my commitments with ease. It wasn’t the fault of anything but my mindset. For that brief period of time, I let the stress of just a few parts of my life overshadow everything that was positive around me — everything that reminds me that stress is just temporary and that it’s not the end of the world. Now that I’ve gotten past it, I’ve realized it’s all about perspective. Everything always feels so much more daunting and consuming in the moment, but it always ends up being way less intimidating in retrospect.

So, as the seemingly insurmountable week of finals quickly approaches, I’m going to do the best I can to take what I’ve learned and approach the upcoming week with a more level-headed attitude, although it’s often easier said than done.

One of my favorite books that I’ve read this past year is a collection of short essays and stories called “The Opposite of Loneliness” by late Yale graduate, Marina Keegan. Keegan tragically died in a car crash four days after her college graduation, which makes the impact of her work even greater.

The book is named after her last piece for the Yale Daily News, written right before her commencement, and it’s one that I continuously go back to in the book. It’s about four pages long and every part is worth quoting, but the part I feel most connected to right now is when Keegan explains how sad she is to say goodbye to all of the “tiny circles” she found at Yale through clubs, organizations, teams, etc.

She wrote, “These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partnerless, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group texts. This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse, I’m scared of losing this web we’re in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling right now.”

When I first read this essay I was a sophomore and, even now, I’m still semesters away from graduating. I don’t have to face these endings or goodbyes anytime soon, but I’m so glad to have this piece of writing to serve as a reminder when I need it the most. This part, in particular,  reminds me to remember the things I love the most about my time here, even when I feel too overwhelmed to appreciate them. Because, eventually, it will come to an end.

It’s easy to count down the days left until the end of finals week. But I hope that when you come back from break, whether you’ll be a second semester freshman or completing your last semester ever at Carroll, you’ll return ready to make the most of it and appreciate being in the present as often as you can.