Most people assume that finals are the busiest time of the year for students, and while they do tend to take their toll on students, midterms should not be discounted for how much stress they cause.

Typically in the fall semester, midterms end up being right near Homecoming activities. If you are a freshman, you are probably required to attend these events and take selfies there for your WU101 class.

If you are in a student organization, you are probably also highly encouraged to participate in addition to attending the events. This means that on top of your classes, midterms, job and social life, you must also take hours out of your week to attend Homecoming events.

Homecoming is a wonderful time, especially for students and faculty, to celebrate the fact that they are an Ichabod. But adding all the aforementioned things on top of it, including midterms, it puts an unnecessary and overwhelming amount of stress on students.

As students, our mental health is stressed greatly enough on a daily basis. Adding midterms and Homecoming around the same time can make us feel swamped.

Let’s break down the numbers here. There are 168 hours in a week and you are taking 15 credit hours a week per semester. That takes your total hours down to 153.

Let’s assume you try to get around seven hours of sleep each night (this is the recommended amount for adults). This takes your total to 104 hours. If you are working part-time, 20 hours a week, your new total is 84.

Professors always tell us that two hours of study time are required per credit hour for each class, this equals 30 hours of studying per week, and makes the total come down to 54 hours. If you are required to attend Homecoming events, you will spend, on average, about 7 hours throughout the week celebrating your Washburn pride, this takes your total down to 47. If you are still planning on having about 3 hours per day devoted to your social life in this week, you are saying goodbye to another 21 hours, making your total 26. That leaves you with an extra 26 hours a week, averaging three and a half to four hours per day to rebuild your health and sanity.

Although this is a stressful time and you feel that you have too much on your plate, remember that you are not alone. As students, we all know how much it sucks when it gets to this point in the semester, so we’ve got to stay in this together.

Support your friends. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your professors or others. But also don’t be afraid to take some time for yourself. Mental health checks are necessary. You should be a proud Ichabod, and make the most of your college experience.