You’ve done the countdown. You know which one I’m talking about; it happens around the one week mark. One day you’re crowding into a van and belching off radio songs and the next, you’re scrambling to figure out if your first day of classes is on a Monday and whether or not you can squeeze one more Beach-BBQ-Volleyball-Outing before you pack it all back into the garage. And all the while, you’re doing the countdown.

7 days…6 days…5 days…and in the midst of all the bonfires and bathing suits…4 days…3 days…2 days…suddenly, it’s the day before the first day of classes and you’re throwing in scrap paper and half-broken pencils into your bag, since it’s only the first day and everyone knows the first day is just a repeat of “I put all the lecture slides up” and “I do NOT drop the lowest score”. Then you blink, and the next thing you know, you’re throwing that shrilling alarm clock across the room to shut it up and reaching for your phone to see what time it is, and-oh damn. The alarm clock WAS the phone. Well, this is starting out to be a fantastic first day.

The morning goes in a blur, although that’s probably because you’re too groggy to process anything (it looks like a shoe…it fits like a shoe…alright, I’m gonna say it’s a shoe!) and then you’re trudging up that darn-forsaken hill into campus. And the countdown? Already reset. How many more days until Winter Break?

Yup, I’ve been there, down to the trudging and grumbling while I count down the days (does November have 30 days? Or is it 31?) While the semester always seems to fly when you’re coming into the finals zone, it also seems to skulk by at a snail’s pace when you’re fresh out of Summer Vacation. The countdown to Winter Bliss seems depressingly ages away. Not that it’s hard enough trying to stay alive during those three-hour lecture courses or waving your friends away in the middle of a party with your study guide sheets because you finally found a few minutes to study.

So what’s a struggling student to do? Awesome Monkey’s Tip Numero Uno: Take it easy. Break it down.

Why mark only one big milestone four months away when you can set up several smaller milestones along the way to keep you going? Personally, I use whatever I can. Birthdays, Holidays, oh, favorite TV shows returning for their season premieres? MARKING IT DOWN AND CIRCLING IN RED. Trust me, it is hard enough just dragging myself to class every week (and I only go to class 3 days a week mind you!), why make it unbearable by setting my sight on a freedom that’s four months away? By setting more things to look forward to and sooner, I’ve got my mind occupied, both on what I’m going to dress up as this Halloween, and when I’m going to put in a few hours to study. And before I know it, December’s here and I’m bracing myself for winter classes.

Buuut that’s a countdown for another day.

Don’t stress yourself out when everything else is doing a good enough job for you. Stay coool as a cat. And no, that is not lame. Shuuush.