HPU Student Stress (mature story 2)

With November comes the traditional warm fuzzy feelings of the holiday spirit. Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is coming, and so are the days of spending quality time with family and friends. However, for many HPU students, this warm feeling is mixed with an ever-present sense of dread and anxiety - because before we can have Christmas, we must have finals.

College can be stressful for anyone, depending on an individual's course load and area of study. However, it is the general consensus that everyone's most stressful time of the semester is the last 2-3 weeks before that dreaded week of finals.

"I haven't cooked food at home in about 2 weeks," said Marian Lopez, HPU nursing student. "I just don't have time - it's so much easier to grab something while I'm out and eat it while I study."

This is the case for many HPU students. The stress of studying combined with unhealthy but inconvenient lifestyle choices causes for a lot of sickness spreading around the school.

"I used to," Lopez said when asked if she exercised with any regularity. "I literally just don't have the time. I've been sick for about a week now too so it really just drains my energy."

Students with different areas of study feel the pressure in different ways. Students from Dr. Kathleen Cassity's Creative Nonfiction Writing class, as mostly English majors, said that they felt overwhelmed by the amount of papers they had to compose before the end of the semester.

"I actually don't think I have any exams," said Summer Neill, Communication major. "I just have like 50 papers to write, and they all have to be like 12 pages or something."

Students in the science and nursing departments feel a different type of struggle.

"I have at least one exam for each class, some have two!" said Lopez. "I literally don't think there's enough hours in the day for me to accomplish it all - even if I studied nonstop until finals starting right this second."

All of the stress is worth it, hopefully, as many students approach the dreaded finals week for the last time.

"I can't believe there is only 26 days until graduation!" said Gabi Fuentes, graduating senior. "It feels so good to be almost done."