Finals Week Encouragement
I know that with the end of residential classes and the impending week of finals, there are usually two reactions. The first (more common) is the terror of fearing your test is bigger than you expected, more than you studied for and is going to crush your GPA. On the other hand, there are some classes where finals mean a sigh of relief. For whatever reason, finals are less scary than the entirety of the rest of the course.
To both of you, I’d like to say congratulations: You’ve made it to the end of a difficult semester, and even more so, to the end of a difficult year. You’re here. The social distancing, remote learning and mask wearing didn’t beat you down. You struggled, you succeeded; you won, you lost – whatever happened, look back at everything you’ve been through and realize, you’ve made it through. That, in itself, deserves recognition.
The Current Perspective
One of my biggest frustrations through my college career was the idea that finals were something to be dreaded. Sure, I didn’t like them, but I wasn’t scared of them. And to be honest, it got under my skin when everyone was wringing their hands in a ‘woe is me, shall we ever pass?’ sort of way.
My anger wasn’t at the person’s fear – that’s understandable. The problem was the social effects I saw. Even in myself, a fairly pragmatic person by nature, when I saw an entire group sharing their fear of a final, I could feel the rise of fear in my own gut. My anger was a response to that feeling, though I’ll admit I didn’t quite know it at the time.
The problem is that when everyone is reflecting the same negative emotion – whether it’s fear of a test, or bitterness toward another person – that emotion become more and more rooted in the individual and spreads throughout the rest of the community they’re a part of. This happens everywhere, but during finals week, I believe it’s most prevalent.
Shifting the Perspective
During finals week, a little bit of nervousness will benefit you, so I’m not going to say become completely apathetic during this time. However, you need to temper that fear with something, because if it’s just fear, your performance will suffer.
In some cases, you can temper the fear of the exam with something that you love – the content of the course, perhaps. That’s one thing that helped me when I was taking my ASL and Interpreting exams. Because I loved what I was working on, it made the test a little bit easier to swallow.
On the other hand, there are some courses that I absolutely hated. Okay, so maybe there’s only one or two that I can think of (I just love learning…), but in those instances I instead looked past the exam at what was to come.
Instead of the final exam being the end-all, final climatic battle in the story of the semester, I saw it as one more hurdle before I could start my break. Instead of being focused on the test, I looked beyond and found strength in what I saw.
I’ll draw a parallel to joy later on.
Seeking and Reflecting the Positive
Our world is filled with negativity in the form of anger, fear, bitterness, sadness and hurt. For some of us, it’s our natural inclination to find the best in any situation. As I like to say, I expect the worst and try to see the best.
For others, it takes more effort. If that’s you, don’t let the effort make you stop. Finding the positive is always, always worth it.
Here are some ideas to find the positive this finals week.
- Look beyond the final. You’re closing out your semester, and whether it was a good year or not, you’re done. You can put it behind you and move one.
- Look at everything you’ve come through. I’d be willing to bet that you’re a different person from last semester. You’ve changed – I hope you’ve grown, but maybe you haven’t. Either way, look at your successes and don’t get cocky, and look at your failures and learn from then. Then, prepare yourself and move on with confidence.
- Look around you. I hope and pray you’ve been blessed with amazing friends at college. All of them are going through finals, too. You might even share the same final. Look for the strength in facing adversity together – not fearing the adversity, but facing it.
- Look inside of you. Your worth is not based off of a GPA. Leave it all on the stage, so to speak, and walk away knowing you did your best. And if your best wasn’t as good as you wanted, know that doesn’t detract from your status as a human being created in the image of God.
As for reflecting the positives, once you know what they are, speak them. And I mean that. You can tell someone else them, you can talk to yourself in the mirror – just hearing the words will benefit you.
Write them on sticky notes and put them in your binders and textbooks, so whenever you’re studying, you’ll be reminded of the positives of the situation.
One last tip – avoid the words, “at least.” “At least we’re taking this together.” “At least it’ll be over once we’re done.”
“At least” means the bare minimum – it’s more like a negative than a positive. Phrase things like this.
“I’m glad I’m taking this test with my classmates.”
“I’m more confident when I remember that after this exam, this course will be done.”
Seek the positives. Share the positives. Reflect the positives in your group until, just like the negative emotions, they become entrenched in you and your friends, and spill into the community surrounding you.
The Parallel to Joy
In Hebrews 12:2, it says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
If you’ve followed my blog, then you know that I had entire post dedicated to the idea of joy a while back. You can find it here: The Joy in the Mess. I also added to it in the “Joy in the Journey” section of 2020: Unposted. But there’s one further thought that has come, that I think this post illustrates very clearly.
Jesus, on the cross, looked beyond the suffering he was going to endure and into what was ‘set before him.’ He looked ahead and saw you and me. He saw that his acceptance of the wrath of God for our sake would allow us to enter Heaven with him. That was the joy that gave him strength.
Now, in turn, our joy is that we have that gift of salvation. Jesus, in Luke 10:20 says, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The 72 that he sent out have just returned speaking of all the miraculous things they’ve seen and done, and Jesus says, “Wait. Stop for a second. Don’t look at all the things that you’ve done and rejoice for that. Don’t look at the power I give you, the gifts I give you and think those are the reasons for your joy. No, your joy is that your name is written in Heaven, and you have a place reserved for you there.”
In the same way, when facing struggles in this life, recognize that no matter what happens, your end is in heaven. At the end of all time, when everything is said and done, if you believe in Christ’s sacrifice for you and acknowledge him as Lord, then your eternal home will be by his side.
Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Just as he took the cross, knowing what was to come, take your life, knowing what comes after. Your satisfaction may never come on this Earth – I pray it will, but that’s not promised. However, life with God forever has been bought and sealed when Christ took our place under God’s holy judgment.
Look beyond and see Christ. Find hope, find joy and find strength from him.
Then go and take your finals – I believe in your.