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Finals: The pressure is real

“How many coffees and no energy drinks can I safely drink before I can finish this final? The beginning of the semester wasn’t that long ago — how are finals here already”

Those quotes from Kelli Dabney, a senior music major, describe how college students tend to feel around this time. Now, some people think that if you’ve been studying, keeping up with assignments, and going to class, finals should not be a problem. But during final season you start to see students who haven’t been in class since the first couple of weeks of school and these are the students who use finals as a way of catching up because they’ve been slacking during the semester. This is also the time when many end-of-semester projects are due.Well, you would be wrong.

And the stress of preparing for finals is mixed in with the anxiety of making parents proud, graduating on time, and not having to pay for the same class,over again.

Many complain about not having enough time to do the bare minimum. “All this week, I barely had any time to eat,’ said Priscilla Gilbert, a senior majoring in criminal justice. She added, “College life is too stressful during finals!”

But there are some ways to cope. During finals, the library begins extended hours — it is open until midnight. That is a big help to many students. “I have to go to [N.C.] State’s library all the time to do work” during the semester, said Rodney Hawkins, a senior engineer major. But, with the later hours at the Prezell Robinson Library, Hakwins can stay on campus.

And the library provides the hard-working students of Saint Augustine’s University with food and drinks such as chips, brownies, cookies, coffee, soda, pizza, and cakes.

That made Jailyn Brown, a senior criminal justice major, happy. “This pound cake is bustin’ ,” Brown said on a recent visit to the library. Dabney said, “This coffee brings out my inner poet.”