The Finish Line to the End of the Semester

By Elaine Amico

In the blink of an eye, the semester is almost over. The question is, did it feel like a blink of an eye to you?

Personally, this semester flew by. I took nineteen credits, the most I have ever taken. It was quite an adventure, but most importantly, it was rewarding. As the semester comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on how it went.

As college students, we are assigned a plethora of assignments. Papers, presentations, midterms, speeches, proposals, final exams, you name it, we do it. While the assignments can be challenging, the most difficult part is balancing them all.

Going into this semester, I knew I had to be organized and ready to put in work. I bought myself a new planner in January, one that had plenty of room to write down my many assignments. Having a planner is probably one of the most basic ways to stay organized, but trust me, it works.

Setting my “own” deadlines is another trick I found to be quite effective. For instance, if I had a presentation due on a Friday, I would mentally make my deadline for Wednesday. That kind of mentality put me ahead of the game, and guaranteed that I’d finish my assignments in a timely manner.

The end of the semester is when things can get extra tricky for students. Professors tend to assign their largest assignments within the last three weeks of the semester, causing homework overload. It can lead to late nights finishing assignments and cramming for exams.

How do we as students avoid that?

Professor Gina Gili believes that planning your days for the end of the semester is key.

“Things will pile up. Leaving things till the last minute will create a snowballing effect, and it will not work out in your favor,” Gili said. “If you knock your assignments off little by little, you’ll be in great shape.”

Alec Boss, Senior at Kean Ocean, recommended living by three rules to help stay organized as the end of semester homework rush starts.

“I try to obey the four quadrants rule and try to get most of my assignments done when they’re important but not urgent,” Boss said. “I do my best to have a mentality that stuff is due ASAP even though it may be weeks out.”

Boss explained that it’s important to realize that you don’t have to know how to finish or accomplish something when you first set out to do it. You just need to stay committed to finding the answer and eventually your commitment will follow you through. Boss acknowledged that while school can be difficult at times, it is an experience that we are all so fortunate to have.

“School, despite being super stressful, has been such an amazing experience for me, and that was something I never had with school growing up. It just feels different.” Boss said.

I believe it’s important to realize that we won’t be in school forever, and there will most likely come a day when we wish we could walk on our campus one more time. 

While the end of the semester can be a tough time, it can also be a time for reflection. Be proud of yourself, and all the hard work you put in this semester. As the finish line is fastly approaching, don’t forget to smile and pat yourself on the back along the way.

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