Dear College Students,

Welcome to the middle of November, or as most of us like to call it, the slump point in the semester. We have officially finished midterms; whether this was successfully or not, we still did them. We are now on our way to enjoy our Thanksgiving break and soon after we will finally be done, and can enjoy our winter break. However, there is only one thing standing in our way: it’s the slump. This whole semester we have done assignments, taken tests, drank too many cups of coffee, and had some pretty great times in between, but now it is time to get down to business.

I know you’re probably thinking: isn’t the whole semester the time to be getting down to business and taking school seriously? Let me be honest, a bunch of students do not actually start getting a firm grasp on their classes until this point in the semester. Heck, I am actually one of them.

Anyways, this is the time when we are all logging on to D2L to see what assignment is due that night. When we log on, we see a little red notification and think that it is just a reminder for that one assignment. We quickly learn that it is the notification for the assignment, but also the test and the small project that are also due tonight that we completely forgot about. I am here to tell you that coffee goes a long way, and you will accomplish this.

This also tends to be the point in the semester where self-doubt makes its huge debut. Everywhere you look, students are talking to their friends, panicking about how they are going to pass this certain class, or maybe even this semester. Some people even doubt everything. I know that, personally, this is the point in the semester where I start to wonder if I made the right decisions. Did I take the right classes? Did I make the right decision by deciding to work and go to school at the same time? Am I even making the right decision by wanting to be an English major?

All of these things seem to go through my head at once, and I feel like I am alone in these thoughts. However, I know that there are some of you who are feeling the same way. I know some of you think that you are the only ones who are struggling with your homework this week, but there are several others of us who are struggling too. I know that you are panicking about working 40+ hours this week and you do not know how you are going to accomplish working AND writing that five page paper that is due in a week. I know that some of you even struggled with getting out of bed today, and you think that even if you are failing, you can just skip because why does it matter anyways?

I am here to tell you that you should not worry. Yes, things seem hard, but we are going to make it through this. We are going to accomplish all of our schoolwork and we are going to work all these hours while doing it, too. Yes, we may lack some sleep, and we may even gulp some extra coffee this week…but in the end, it will be worth it. We will make it past this slump point in this semester and we will move on to the next one. And if you happen to feel this way again later on in other semesters, I want you to come back and read this. This is a letter to all of you college students that lets you know that no matter what gets in your way, you will get through this!

Sincerely,

An exhausted peer