Remind me, why did I want come back to school again?

So...it's exam week. What does this mean, exactly? Well, it's different than I expected...

As an undergrad, exam week meant very little. Honestly, I rarely had finals. I was always lucky enough to get the teachers that didn't want to grade finals if possible, so we either: didn't have one, I didn't have to take it, or we took our "final" during the last few weeks of class. This made for a rather easy, stress-free exam week (even if it did mean a few extra all-nighters the weeks before).

This year, life is NOT that easy. Apparently, in grad school, exam week involves temporarily moving into one of the study rooms at Walker, consuming nothing but gallons of coffee and the occasional piece of gum, and becoming so focused that all of your conversations involve references or analogies to the subjects you're studying...

To be honest, I look back on exam week as an undergrad with a bit of nostalgia: non-productive study groups, hour long coffee breaks, color coded index cards, and just enough stress to keep me up for 1...well, 2...okay, maybe 3 extra hours.

Grad school exams are so very different. I have NEVER been this tired. And, oddly enough, even though these exams are harder and more important, I can't seem to motivate myself to stay up. I actually hit a point each night where I think, "What's more important, the next eight pages of notes, or my soft, warm, comfy bed?" Sleep almost always wins.

What makes this exam week even more difficult is the fact that we aren't just taking exams. We've had two additional assignments due (one of which was a group assignment) and I'm still working 15 hours a week (in Bentonville). No problem, right? Nope, that's fine, just let me tack on another meeting and a few study groups to my already full schedule (if I don't learn anything from this program, at least I'm coming out with EXCELLENT time management skills). I mean, really, look at my schedule for the past week:
 
Friday: Work 8 - 5, Drive home in traffic, Isys homework, Study for Marketing, Work on Finance
Saturday: Work on Finance, Group meeting for Isys, Networking event in Springdale with the Dean
Sunday: Church (which didn't happen), Work on Finance, Study group for Marketing
Monday: Study for Marketing, MARKETING EXAM, Study for Econ
Tuesday: Study for Econ, ECON EXAM, Tutoring session...

...and this week has been fairly uneventful - usually I have to add in class time, community service projects, social events, etc. Not including time I'd like to spend talking to my roommate or playing with the puppy or sleeping or eating a decent meal or grocery shopping to cook a decent meal or doing laundry or cleaning my room...I need a few more hours in my day.

The upside? This will be over soon. Just two more exams (Econ and Isys) and I get 3 months off to re-charge. I know I wanted to do this (to come back to school, to live this life for a little bit longer), but it's moments like this, where I'm just deliriously tired, that I wonder why...

I'll let you know next week, when I've had enough sleep to remember