I know I say this every semester, but this year the end of the term really is running me ragged. It may be that I’m taking eighteen credits, but I don’t remember another year in which I’ve had six papers due in the last three weeks of classes - that’s without even taking into account final exams. I’m at least two weeks behind on the reading for two of my five classes, and I’ve stopped even pretending to have time to write a paper more than one weekend before its due date. Every November (and April) is stressful like this to a certain degree, but this is truly horrifying. It’s a little reminiscient of my senior year in high school, too. Back then the other seniors were taking four study halls and three electives (or whatever) while the handful of hopeless nerds (which included myself) actually signed up for an additional class a full hour before the regular school day started. That year I had nine classes each semester, and had to be at school in time for a 6:30am class. Of course, all those AP credits meant that I entered NYU as something like a Sophomore Lite, but I have the same sort of frantic, wide-eyed feeling this year that I did then. I’ve got my regular course load of three upper-level philosophy courses and one computer science, plus the senior honors seminar in philosophy, plus that Logic class I’m TAing for. I’m once again firmly addicted to caffeine, after finally weaning myself from my high school habit only two years ago.

On the other hand, in (approximately) three weeks’ time I’ll be fourteen credits shy of a bachelor’s, if nothing breaks or unties. That hasn’t stopped me from registering for another eighteen credits of classes, of course.