Deadline season struggles every Lancs student has to suffer

It’s that time of the year. End of year exams are rapidly approaching, chunky essays and dissertations are due in just a few short weeks and everyone is feeling the crunch. If you’re one of the few that don’t have exams or completed your essays early, bask in the foresight you were so smart to have, while the rest of us have our soul physically sucked out by textbooks.

Since the majority of us have been ignoring the increasing pressure of work until last minute, here are some of the most relatable struggles Lancs students face, so you can ignore that essay a little longer.

Finding a seat in the library

Finding a seat in the library is already hard enough when it’s jam-packed full of students who can’t be bothered to go home for an hour between lectures. During exam season, a live-action Hunger Games is the sad reality, as everyone has the same idea as you. It means abandoning your favourite seat and venturing off to the randomest of corners, with the broken chairs and weird noises.

Contacting lecturers and tutors

There’s nothing like looking at the assignment brief and realising you’ll have to do the unthinkable: talk to people. Talking to lecturers is already a daunting experience, never mind adding the fact that you have no idea what to do for the assignment into the mix. Dissertation tutors are a whole different, more terrifying breed. Imagine telling them you’re only 500 words into a chunky 10k essay… traumatic.

The all-nighters and missed alarms

Left an assignment a bit too late? It is cutting it a bit fine when the assignment says submitted 20 seconds before the deadline. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. And during that post-assignment nap, you slept through those 30 alarms you set and now you’re reluctantly racing to that lecture you absolutely don’t want to go to. Is a degree even worth it right now?

The caffeine addiction 

Pushing through those late nights and early mornings start to take a toll, and to combat it you think a little coffee won’t hurt, right? Or an energy drink from Spar? After a few weeks, you realise these treats have turned into a crippling caffeine addiction, affecting both your mental and physical well-being, as demonstrated by the baggy-eyed horde of zombies shuffling down the Spine in the early hours. Swap that afternoon coffee for a water and your liver will probably thank you.

Balancing work and plans

As the end of term approaches, those that had the right idea and got their essays done early are going out, and you’re left watching enviously as your empty word document stares menacingly at you. You’re wishing you’d had the foresight to start your essays a little earlier and resign yourself to living vicariously through the Snap stories and attempting to be an academic weapon you absolutely know you are not.

Food

You’re a couple hours deep into your assignment (or TikTok) and your stomach is making its presence known. You deserve a break, some fresh air and a treat right? Greggs seems like the perfect spot until you’re outside and face to face with the sight of the queue to the middle of Alex Square. Spar will have been picked clean by now and Central is a right trek away, so the queue it is! As the line trickles down so does every bit of motivation you had to work in the first place and you’re ready to go home and stick on some Netflix.

Top tip: bring your own snacks or prepared meal, it’s usually healthier and kinder on your wallet.

Mental health + burnout

It’s been a long year and you’re maybe not doing so great, you’re tired, and have lost all motivation to go to 12 o’clock lectures, never mind the dreaded 9ams. But the holidays are almost here! It’s the final push before you can go home and gorge yourself on Easter chocolate and your mum’s cooking, which will probably be the most any of us have eaten since Christmas because of the cost of living. Or you can attend one of Lancaster’s many take care of yourself events.

Technology

We’ve all had it where technology has decided to just break at the worst of times, normally just before you hit submit and it starts buffering. Watching that circle spin for a solid minute fills you with that anxious terror that has you whimpering out loud and desperately praying to the universe that the WiFi has not just crashed on you right now.

Procrastinating

Going to the library only to sit on TikTok for two hours? Most of us can relate unfortunately. No-one actually wants to study but with those deadlines pressing ever closer its probably best to take the L and put a lock on TikTok.

Friends and Flatmates

It’s a tough time for many of us during this season and that can mean tensions start running a little high. That one flatmate that plays their music a little too loud, or likes to have a karaoke session in the shower physically makes your eye twitch and you start to consider a life of crime. Try to be respectful of others during this time and understand that everyone is feeling a bit frazzled, so don’t take anything to heart right now.  We all just need a good Netflix induced nap.

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• From failing to pigeons: Here are Lancs students’ biggest fears
• Substantial meals and empty Alex square: The Fever Dream of 2020/2021 on campus
• A procrastinator’s nightmare: I stayed inside in the library for 24 hours straight