Self-Care During Midterm Season

By: Natalie Oganesyan ‘22 

Let me paint a familiar picture. It’s midterm season and you’re spending all your available hours and sanity on studying. You’re stressed beyond belief, but in a week or two the worst will be over. That is, until you get hit with the common cold. Or something in your personal life goes horribly wrong. Or you realize you spread yourself way too thin. Your first thought is “Are you kidding me?” and it’s closely followed by “That’s just my luck.” But I’m here to tell you that it’s not the end of the world. Even if you feel like death now, and everything feels like it’s coming crashing down, here are a couple things you can do to give yourself a break and push through this trying time:

1. Prevention is better than a cure

I hate to say it, but Emergen-C and Vitamin C and Zinc supplements like Counter Attack should become your best friends as soon as you feel like you’re coming down with something. I used to think they were placebos and then when I stopped taking them I immediately got sick.

Preventative measures can boost your immune system and make it less likely for you to get a cold. It’s a known fact that your immune system drops when you’re stressed. That means it’s extra important to take these measures during midterm season. As soon as you feel under the weather, you should take extra precautions to take care of yourself. Wash your hands constantly, use hand sanitizer, bundle up, get more rest, and chug water and tea continuously. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, STOP sharing smoking devices and drinks (I’m looking at you JUUL fiends). 

2. Medicine! Medicine! Medicine!

Once you’re already sick and going through it, you can’t really do much other than ride the waves of sickness in all their entirety. However, Advil, DayQuil, and NyQuil will slightly alleviate discomfort and help you sleep! Which leads me to…

3. The therapeutic power of sleep.

I got sick this midterm season and it was truly a plight I don’t wish on any of my enemies. One thing that I could do, and was happy to do, was let my body rest. When your body is busy fighting a virus 24/7, you need to let it do its job. And you can’t do that if you’re running around from place to place. Bank on your friends to do things for you— that’s what friends are for! Email your professors to let them know you need to skip class or need an extension on an assignment. Know that it’s okay to not be involved in extracurricular activities and clubs for one week. Trust me, you won’t miss as much as you think you will.

Not only are power naps important— ones that are 20, 30, or 60 minutes long— but so is your sleep at night! That means you should probably go to sleep before 3 a.m. and should plan to get at least eight hours each night (I mean you should probably try to do that every night, regardless, but we’re college students so I don’t really see that happening for most of us realistically).

4. EAT!

Your body can’t fight off all the bits of the virus if you’re not nourished enough to do it. Loss of appetite is common with sickness, but it’s important to try and eat as much as possible, even when you don’t feel like it. Food isn’t just good for your body, it’s good for your mind, too. Even if you’re not sick, studying takes a lot of energy and brain power. Make sure to sustain yourself with a proper balance of grains, vegetables, fruits, and proteins. And no, coffee is NOT a meal, so have breakfast to jumpstart your metabolism.

5. Turn to your friends!

I literally had friends bring me plain slices of toast from EVK because I physically could not crawl out of the hole that is my dorm room. Your friends are there to look out for your well-being and make sure you’re taking care of yourself. They will be more than willing to help out in your time of need. Repeat after me: You are not a burden and your friends DO care and are there to love and support you!

6. Call Mom.

Mom always knows what to do. In the event that she doesn’t (which is incredibly rare) she’ll offer some words of encouragement, especially if you’re feeling a little homesick or down in the dumps. She’s also a great repository of knowledge when it comes to grandma’s home remedies for various illnesses or ailments. 

7. When everything goes to hell, throw on a face mask and realize that, yeah, you really do just be going through it.

Sometimes it’s important to realize that you really are just going through it. It’s okay not to be okay at all times, and it’s okay to be overwhelmed as a college student, particularly as a freshman. Doing little things like a simple face mask has been proven scientifically (okay, by me) to boost self-esteem and happiness. Of course, self-care and self-love in general is much more intensive than that, but sometimes it’s good to take a breather and take a step back. This is when you should invest in a good support system which can help uplift you when you feel like you’ve exhausted all other possible resources.

8. Know that one bad grade isn’t the end-all be-all of your career as a student

Is it important to try in school? Yes. Is it important to push through despite all the things going on in your life and do your best? Double yes. However, mental health should not be on the back burner, even during midterm season. I stand with the notion that education and learning in general is noble and even necessary, especially at a higher institution. However, that doesn’t mean you should be killing yourself over one midterm or one class. One bad grade on a midterm worth 20 percent of your grade isn’t going to kill your GPA or even your grade in that class. Extra credit opportunities, curves, and other resources exist to help mitigate midterm importance. Take advantage of those and realize that, at the end of the day, we all gotta fail sometimes.

9. Reward yourself

Not to sound too cheesy or cliche, but when it’s all over you should definitely treat yo’ self! You made it through midterm season or cold season and you came out stronger on the other side. The worst of the suffering is over (until final season…) and you really DID that. Congrats and rock on. Or, as a proper USC student would say, FTFO.

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