Keep on Keeping On

It is a cold autumn Saturday morning and I should be huddled in bed, warm and cozy, maybe with a hot coffee, devouring The Girl Who Played with Fire. But alas, no. After I finish this entry I need to hunker down and do MORE research for one of my two final essays for my Semester 1 courses. I finished the research for my first essay on Thursday and mercifully had Friday off to relax and do laundry. I am absolutely mentally exhausted. I'm also battling a bit of depression, I suspect from the mental exhaustion. I attended only one lecture this previous week because I have been so bogged down with researching my essays! Normally, essays tend to be a doddle for me. Incredibly easy to research, easy to write. But this final essay for my Renaissance and Reformation Europe course is my Goliath. And I'm all out of rocks.

I have been living on vitamin water and convenience food lately. It's been terrible. I am looking forward to handing in my essays this week and then just collapsing on the Friday. After that, I have one more week of lectures, then a study break, then my two exams. I'm not worried about the exams at all. I tend to have a pretty zen attitude towards them: it is what it is. There is no point in ruminating about what you could have said or should have said while you're in there, what's done is done. No point hurriedly looking over your notes again an hour before the exam because by that stage what you know is all you are going to know. Most of my exams during my time at university have been of the essay variety. Normally it's something like 3-4 essay questions to answer in 3 hours. Only once was I spared, my advertising course had a final test in the last lecture of the course and all you had to do was answer multiple choice questions.

I have found this semester incredibly difficult. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed my classes- I have. I absolutely adore Dr J who is the lecturer for my R&R Europe course, and I respect him. I am frustrated that he doesn't so much like the newer books about the subject (there goes half my own personal library of books!), but I understand why. The lectures are fun and comprehensive...it's just this essay is REALLY doing my head in. But I will plough through, I have to. No point getting an extension just because I'm exhausted, no point getting marked down for handing it in late. I just have to do it.

And with that, I shall leave to a mountain of books....