Finals Week

Today marks the end of finals week for the winter quarter at UChicago. While it is always a very busy time, it is actually one of my favorite periods of the year, mainly for the peaceful break that follows each term.

After a quarter of intense learning, you put yourself out there, either through an essay, exam, or project, in one last push to show what you've got. Although the week is extremely hectic, a week or two of break always directly follows.

Despite being entirely a product of educational administrations and their compulsion to measure students' progress and formulate such a complex aspect of growth into an abstract character like a letter, it does have significant parallel with the natural world. Students refer to it as "finals season" which makes lots of sense if you stop and think about it.

Whatever the case may be, the ups and downs of life are everywhere. In the leaves, the snowfall, the rain and the sunshine; from the corporate boardroom to the grocery store. Cycles of increased and decreased intensities of growth and comfort abound.

Oftentimes it is easy to get caught up in the idea of balancing everything out, spreading out workload and struggle evenly over the entire course of our lives. But, that usually just isn't how life comes at us, and the better we get at riding the waves the more we can grow as people.

Whatever stage of the wave you might be in now, try to just enjoy it for what it is, rather than seeking to create some artificial stability in an ever changing sea. Enjoy the ride.

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Photo is the Chicago River in the process of being dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. Cashed in a bunch of rewards points to get a hotel room with a good view over the river. Needless to say it was well worth it.