Semester's End

One of the negative aspects of finals is how much they de-sync the end of the semester. After so much writing, study, and thought, we Ephs are weary, and ready to get home. Because many profs give out self-scheduled exams or essays that can be written from home, we can sometimes be free to go while others have four exams to take. In addition, the different schedules each person sets for studying and writing often don't match up.

This means that instead of one big WORK IS DONE! blowout, we have pre-finals parties, and then celebrate being done on Facebook. This means that my friends will be leaving as I take my tests; we won't have time for much of a goodbye before some fly away to foreign countries, and there won't be any event marking the end of the semester. Williams gets around this problem with senior week in the spring, but the rest of the classes have to improvise. While I would never want to have to stick around in the tundra after finishing work, the semester's fading end is a reminder that no policy or freedom is without some other, unanticipated consequences.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acordova/ / CC BY-ND 2.0