The spring semester is always divided more or less in two by spring break. Those two months before spring break are stressful, to be sure, but they are brightened by the thought of a week off from school.
Then spring break passes, and we're left with just over a month to get our lives in order before summer vacation begins.
The promise of summer is no longer the luxurious three months that our high school selves wished for endlessly. Instead, it means graduating from college or working.
Those of us fortunate enough to have a job or internship already lined up for the summer are more or less set.
For those of us who still have no idea what we'll be doing come May, we're starting to feel the crunch. We're starting to walk around campus with barely disguised panic in our eyes. Not only do we have jobs and internships to apply for, we have the crush of term papers, final exams and group projects — oh my.
The classic dilemma of students is that we're constantly choosing between schoolwork and our résumés. We can work on our impending assignments or applications, but eventually we'll end up sacrificing valuable time to one or the other.
It's part of the learning process. Learning to balance work, school, friends, family, all of the above, while maintaining our finances and saving for our futures, is (hopefully) part of being an adult.
Is this state of anxiety, of uncertainty, really a natural part of adulthood?
Learning to solve your own problems without a working safety net, struggling to pay off student loan debt or saving to buy a house: These things are hallmarks of becoming a mature and "productive" member of society. These things will bring us additional pressure, as though we aren't under enough pressure already.
We're prepping for our future careers while still trying to makes ends meet on a day-to-day basis. A bit of anxiety is inevitable. It's not like we expect life to be easy for us; we're constantly reminded that ease is not a reasonable expectation.
Our state of busy-ness and our day-to-day stress is just another manifestation of our general sense of being lost and ill-equipped.
Confidence in our own ability to land on our feet may be lacking, and advice to "just take one thing at a time" may be annoying, but we're all working toward something — whether that's a career with which we fall in love or just make do.
So while we're cramming into coffee shops to study for finals, update résumés and fill out job applications, just take a deep breath.
To quote Blink-182, "Well, I guess this is growing up."
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