It’s the day after Christmas, which means two things: 1) I’m still recovering from a peppermint bark sugar coma, and 2) finals week is officially behind me. Thank goodness, because if I had to bubble in one more multiple-choice question about 19th-century tariffs, I might’ve actually cried in the testing room.

The Finals Week Aesthetic (aka Chaos)

Finals week has a vibe. You know it the second it starts:

• The library is suddenly full of people you’ve never seen before, all acting like they’ve been living there since August.
• Teachers hand out “review packets” that could double as doorstoppers.
• Coffee consumption triples. (Shoutout to the barista who had my order memorized by Wednesday.)
• Everyone is equal parts exhausted and unhinged, laughing at their own suffering in the hallways.

Cross country taught me endurance, but finals week? That’s an ultramarathon of sitting still, surviving on caffeine, and praying you didn’t accidentally skip a whole unit in AP Chem.

The Study Styles You See Everywhere

The best part of finals week is people-watching. You get every possible archetype crammed into one space:

• The Flashcard Fiends: flipping Quizlet sets like they’re stock traders on Wall Street.
• The “I’ll Just Wing It” Kids: who loudly claim they “don’t study” while nervously biting their nails.
• The Highlight-Obsessed: their notes are so rainbow-coded they look like art projects, but ask them what the Missouri Compromise was and it’s radio silence.
• The Group Studyers: who spend three hours “reviewing” and actually memorize nothing except the latest drama.
• Me: over-preparing for one subject while completely ignoring another until 10 p.m. the night before.

It’s chaotic, but in the most human way. Everyone handles stress differently, and finals week puts that on full display.

The Weird Part: I Kinda Love It

I know—finals are objectively terrible. But there’s something weirdly comforting about the shared misery. Everyone’s in the same boat, equally sleep-deprived and equally done with life. You walk down the hallway, see someone clutching a Starbucks cup and a binder, and you just exchange a silent nod like, yep, we’re in the trenches together.

And when it’s finally over? The relief is unmatched. Christmas lights look brighter, hot chocolate tastes better, and suddenly sleep feels like a luxury. You crawl into break like you’ve survived a war, and in some ways, you kinda have.

My Christmas Break Brain

The problem is, my brain doesn’t know how to not study after finals. The day after my last exam, I instinctively reached for my backpack before realizing I didn’t have anything due. Now it’s break, and I’m stuck in that weird limbo where half of me is like, shouldn’t you be reviewing vocab? and the other half is like, absolutely not, you’re watching Elf for the third time while inhaling leftover cookies.

Honestly, it feels illegal to sit still without guilt. But it’s also kind of amazing.

The Finals Week Traditions

The actual exams aren’t fun, but the little “traditions” around them? Those stick. Things like:

• Making last-minute Kahoots with friends and pretending that’s “real studying.”
• Eating takeout with your notes spread across the table like it’s a crime scene.
• The one kid who brings an entire blanket to school and wears it like a cape all week.
• Swearing you’ll “start studying earlier next semester” (spoiler: you won’t).

It’s these ridiculous rituals that make finals week less miserable and more memorable.

What Finals Actually Teach Me

Finals don’t just test what you know—they test how much chaos you can handle. Sleep deprivation, back-to-back exams, teachers suddenly deciding participation grades matter—it’s all part of the deal. But every year, I come out of it realizing I’m more capable than I thought. I may not remember every APUSH fact, but I do remember that I survived.

Wrapping It Up

Finals week is messy, stressful, and sometimes a little soul-crushing. But it also makes Christmas break feel like the best gift ever. Grades aside, just making it through feels like an achievement worth celebrating.

So if you’re still recovering from finals brain: same. Let’s agree our only exam this week is how many Christmas cookies we can eat before New Year’s.