Finals week according to Adele

Adele has proven herself as the comeback queen with a record-breaking, heart-smashing and emotion-inducing album that has people everywhere listening and crying non-stop.  #allthefeels

With the chaos of finals week just around the corner, we can’t help but see a little bit of ourselves in each of her songs as we lock ourselves away from all social interaction before all hell breaks loose.  

After hours days of conducting serious academic research and eating away my feelings with countless slices of cookie cake, I have analyzed the songs and matched them to the moments that we will all feel during finals week.

Get your tissue ready.   

I Miss You

Taking advantage of the 24 hour opening of the Rock, we have moved into a 4×4 cubicle for the night.  We have spent hours in the library. Our hands are stained with lead and ink and our eyes ache as the 1928381746th hour of EchoCenter of monotonous lecture plays through our headphones.

Adele is clearly singing about the feeling of horror and defeat as our computers begin to blink red and the screen fades to black, leaving us in the dark in the middle of  the *exciting* lecture about derivatives:

Baby don’t let the lights go down

Don’t let go, baby give me light

I miss you when the lights go out

It illuminates all of my doubts

All I Ask 

In this beautiful ballade, Adele successfully captures the gratitude we feel towards our beloved TAs. This song embodies all of our feelings as the exam date nears and the unfathomable possibility of having to sit through a final without the TA’s email at our fingertips.  *weep*

I know there is no tomorrow

All I ask is

If this is my last night with you

Give me a memory I can use

And since you’re the only one that matters

Tell me who do I run to?

Water Under the Bridge 

At first, I thought this song was about a tough break-up and Adele’s need for validation of the relationship’s reality.  But, oh was I wrong.  After spending the time and tears reflecting on the #relatable lyrics, I decided that the real purpose of the song was to express our frustrations with office hours.

Because many of us are prone to leaving a lot of our studying to the last day before the exam, our inaugural visits to office hours are usually met with long lines of students waiting for the same attention.  Maybe they’ll get to us, or not — maybe we’ll be asleep by then.

What are you waiting for?

And who are you hiding from?

Have I ever asked for much?

The only thing that I want is your love

If you’re gonna let me down, let me down gently

Don’t pretend that you don’t want me

Hello

Locked away from the world, surrounded by cinderblock walls and monochrome colors, we are left with no choice but to wallow alone as we look enviously to the “other side” of what could have been.

 Adele was clearly inspired by the quiet floors of the Sci Li since there is no way that anyone can hear anything, even if she “must have called a thousand times.” And yeah, going into the 3rd (7th? 9th?) consecutive all-nighter at the library, there is no doubt that we “never seem to be home.”

Hello from the other side

I must have called a thousand times

But when I call you never seem to be home

At least I can say that I’ve tried

When We Were Young

The title is self-explanatory.  When we were young, we only saw finals in our dreams (#tbt to nap time).

Before we realized

We were sad of getting old

Million Years Ago

While in line at Andrews for our 5th cookie slice and 9th cup of coffee in the last hour, we are left to reflect on what our lives have come to.  What happened to frolicking in the sunflower beds with the sun shining above our head and a faint rainbow in the sky?  It seems like only yesterday that we were learning how to spell “grades” rather than trying to get good ones.

Many days have passed while cooped up in our studies, and the smell of fresh air and existence of social activity are now distant memories.  Adele captures the essence of finals in a beautifully written phrase, “And all I can do is watch and cry.”  Brb going to buy tissues. 

I only wanted to have fun

Learning to fly, learning to run

I wish I could live a little more

Look up to the sky, not just the floor

I feel like my life is flashing by

And all I can do is watch and cry

I miss the air, I miss my friends

Life was a party to be thrown but that was a million years ago

     

Sweetest Devotion

It’s the hour before exam time, and we have come to terms with the inevitable fact that we have to take the final no matter what.  Realizing that what we still don’t know will remain unknown, we throw out our last-minute flashcards and stomp into that testing room with our heads held high and the world in our hands.

I wasn’t ready then, I’m ready now

I’m heading straight for you

You’re my life, you’re my darkness

You’re the right kind of madness

And you’re my hope, you’re my despair,

You’re my scope, everything, everywhere

The Tab wishes you all the best of luck.  Finals are tough, but Adele knows that we will all get through it.