From experiencing my first “college” finals week, I’m learning that anything to mitigate the stress of impending finals doom is key.
For better or for worse, my finals happened to fall at the end of finals period which means two things:
1. It’ll be even more time to wait before I can FINALLY go home to California (it’s been almost 4 months since I left my native state)
2. Procrastination is too real
In order to thoroughly procrastinate, I’ve tried to distract myself from the stress of the week. Luckily, there has been lots of stuff going on to help with that…almost too much honestly. I hate to pick and choose, but I sadly couldn’t do all the finals period activities, but I did manage to do a few:
Midnight Breakfast at the Chabad House
The Tufts rabbi on campus last week hosted students in his home late one night and cooked one of the most tremendous breakfast displays I’ve seen in months: pancakes, waffles, omelets made to order, cereal, yogurt, tea, and so much more!
Raised in a catholic family, I was a little hesitant to go, but when a jewish friend invited a group to go I decided to tag along. To my surprise, I was by far not the only non-jewish student in the house and our table had a very fascinating conversation about our respective religions. I didn’t know how much I missed a home cooked meal until I sampled my veggie omelet and the fact that it was at 11:30pm after a long night of studying made it even better!
Gingerbread Making with MAPS
After my brother and I dropped our homemade gingerbread house in elementary school (much to my mom’s horror), I haven’t made one since. Yet, when I heard that the Minority Association of Pre-Health Students was hosting a gingerbread making session—which turned out to be a fierce competition between students channeling their inner architects—I knew I had to go so I dragged a friend along with me.
Although our house did not win the competition, we did get a shoutout by one of the renowned judges for our innovative use of chocolate frosting to coat the walls.
TDC and Burlesque Shows
Two of the many performance groups on campus, the Tufts Dance Collective and Burlesque Troupe arguably are the hardest to get tickets for because of the high demand to see their limited number of shows. Luckily, I ran down to the box office a few weeks back to snag tickets for both shows, which both happen at the start of the finals period at the end of each semester. I cannot put into words how entertaining each of the individual shows were because they were in their own ways. If you don't know what TDC is, it's basically a show for students who can't dance attempting to put on a show for their peers. Burlesque on the other hand, is what it sounds like, but it's full of body positivity and excitement.
Unfortunately, I missed the puppies on campus—twice!!—during finals week. Guess I’m going to have to look harder next semester for them. I met a lovely corgi named Penny back in September when the dogs were first on campus, but I’ve been getting my dog petting time this semester because of the one eyed Basset Hound that saunters around the philosophy department in Miner hall. Nothing makes his day like a student taking a moment out of her day to say hello and give him a pet.
I did, however, get to go sledding on the Pres lawn for the first time and build my first snowman on the Res Quad this week too—which arguably makes up for the tragic fact I missed the puppies.
I’m happy to report that thankfully I’ve survived my finals (with my last final at 8am this morning and lasting 3 hours) and currently finishing this in Logan airport waiting for my plane back to the Golden State.
All in all, I’m just glad finals are over and I’m headed away from the 20-30 degree Boston weather for a few weeks.