Growing up, it was every child’s greatest excitement to see the calendar change to the month of October. The falling leaves, the changing of colors to deep autumnal browns and oranges and the most important: Halloween decorations.
Halloween is a holiday that surrounds most children’s visions as the month of October begins. The importance of choosing out a costume can almost be analogous to a bride choosing her wedding dress. Every detail of the costume must be planned accordingly, and uniqueness played a big factor. For many children, the yearly costumes tend to characterize their favorite character or persona during that period in their lives. If we placed a side-by-side collection of one child’s Halloween costumes over the year, we can tell a lot about the era that they grew up in; most children dress up after new Disney, Universal Studios, Marvel, etc. characters that have come out in those years.
As we start growing up, Halloween loses the meaning of what childhood once used to be, and instead of being the ones knocking on the door screaming, “Trick or Treat!” we are the ones opening the door and handing out the candy to a group of rosy-cheeked children dressed in a multitude of costumes.
As we grow up, it is clear that our responsibilities and priorities change immensely. The start of October no longer delights us with the joy of Halloween approach, but instead, the horror of midterm weeks dawning on us as the semester rolls forward. However, it is important to balance life, because it is important to stay mentally healthy just as much as it is important to maintain good grades and a good understanding of the field of study we are in. Given that, here are some tips for not only midterm week, but for tackling the stress of tests and school life while making sure you also balance the extracurricular activities you love in life.
1. Planning
It would be ideal to begin intensely studying and making a timeline a week or two before your midterm. Rather than cramming mass amounts of the information the weekend before your exam, and leaving yourself to deal with high levels of stress, it is instead a good idea to plan to study a few topics and concepts every day until the day leading up to your test. By following this method, you are allowing yourself to constantly review the needed material and hereby deriving greater retention of the material. You will be able to work through hard concepts with more time, which will give you the courage to solve highly challenging problems that are beyond the difficulty level for your exam. This will help you walk into the exam knowing what is needed for not only the exam, but its integration into your life and career.
To be better at organizational planning, it might be a good idea to get a weekly planner or use the Calendar app that is available on iPhone and Android phones. There are also many apps that help you organize your study schedule and timelines. One, named Forest, allows users to set an amount of time where they will not be able to stray away from the app. By not touching your phone for the allotted time, you will be helping plant trees, and if you are off the app for more than 10 seconds, your tree dies.
2. Meditation
This might seem an odd one, for during the bustle of midterm week, the last thing students want to do is take some time off to meditate in a quiet space. However, it is important to learn how to deal with stress, as in our lives, stress will never go away. Whether it be midterm week for a college student, closing a deal for business executives or performing an intensive surgery for a physician, stress will plague us whether we like it or not. There are many apps, such as Headspace and Calm, which use professionals that are able to guide you through different exercises ranging from five to 60 minutes. The breathing exercises help you relax and focus on your inner self, which will aid in calming your nerves.
3. Getting Sleep
Sleep seems like a rare commodity during midterm season. However, it is more important that we know – by sleeping, your brain is able to retain and collect the information necessary for performance. When sleeping schedules are tarnished, the brain does not have a chance to rest and replenish itself properly. Through this, it is easier to become more frantic and find it harder to retain information and concentrate throughout the day.
