Why Finals?

With less than 48 hours left in this Spring semester, I feel like each minute is taking an eternity. Maybe it's due to the fact that I pretty much checked out at Thanksgiving or maybe because the preparation needed for my final on Wednesday has yet to begun. And, yes, today is Monday. Let's just say that this final will cover Neurology, Oncology, HIV, AIDS, COPD, Asthma, Orthopaedics, and Mental and Psychiatric Disorders. Why? Why do I feel as if whatever I do will never get me to that point where I will feel completely comfortable and competent with the material? Understandably, the majority of college campuses and high schools are experiencing the same feelings as I just described. It made me start to wonder....if the risks outweight the benefits for giving and taking final exams, then why do we continuously give them?

Let me explain. Normally, during this time of year, teachers, professors, and doctors begin to get stressed out in order to reach their deadlines of submitting their grades and finishing the final draft of the exam for all of their classes. Simply, as stress levels increase, blood pressure increases, substance abuse increases (i.e. caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol), and sometimes relationships suffer. Such as professors, students experience the same cause-effect relationship. However, in my opinion, the effect is much more grandiose. The lack of sleep, the substance abuse taken to a completely new level, and the constant cramming seems to worsen with each subsequent finals week. So, why do we subject ourselves to these unhealthy tasks? Perhaps it is due to the unbelivable, and sometimes unattainable, standards set by ourselves, our peers, our families, and our respectable institutions. Before I go on, let me clarify something. I believe that students should be pushed and challenged. Without a certain level of stress, students, and professors for that matter, will never proceed or rise above the expectations and their predicted potential. However, when do we say enough?

I'm curious to know how many suicides or overdoses occur during the end of a semester. I'm sure it's a number that I'm not quite ready to hear. So, the reason I ask these questions is not to challenge the system or complain about all the studying I have to accomplish within the next day and a half, but to address the situation of what the future of America is doing to their bodies and their overall health in order to reach a goal or certain expectations set by someone other than themselves. Needless to say, the substance abuse within this country is incredible. And granted, the majority of substance abuse is normally used for recreational purposes. However, those future leaders of America who are reaching, studying for that degree, may be ingesting these chemicals at astronomical levels, and instead of our survival rate increasing throughout the years, I have a sick feeling that we may start to see a dramatic decline.

So, to all my fellow colleagues and intellectuals, Happy Studying and let's try and keep the Starbucks runs to less than 10 per day. Good day.