Dead Week...Ha!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty sure the whole point of "dead week" (the infamous week preceding finals) was to give students an entire week in which to cram a semester's worth of information and work. Well, not if you happen to be a UNK English major with a journalism minor. If you fall into my demographic, dead week IS finals week.

ALL of my English and journalism finals were due this week, including my 15-20 page research paper, my final creative portfolio, a final radio performance recording, and a video commentary blog entry. The only "final" I have next week is a 10-minute presentation over my research paper, and that is only because I opted to do it next week instead of this week. Normally, I wouldn't complain in the slightest about being done with classes a week earlier than most people; while they are cramming away in front of computer screens, I can be outside enjoying the spring weather. However, in the last couple years, I have discovered a pattern in both the English and journalism departments of UNK. EVERYONE makes their final assignments due during dead week.

I'm sure this is done with the best of intentions; the professors probably realize that most students have more than enough to do during finals week, so they up the due date by a few days to give students more time for other assignments. Plus, they probably have their own finals to collect, so why not give everyone a little break? Well, that's great in theory, but what about those of us who DON'T have any other finals? All we have are English papers and journalism assignments, which leaves us in the dead week dust. We don't get an extra week to focus entirely on finishing our projects. We don't get a week with no other assignments due. Instead, we get an end-of-the-semester crunch week where EVERYTHING is due, and we still have all of our regularly-scheduled classes to attend on top of it. Yay us!

So, while the rest of you are dutifully studying away in the library for the remainder of this and next week, we will sleeping. Passed out from sheer exhaustion and assignment-overload in our comfy corner beds until it is time to pull ourselves up, put on the cap and gown, and celebrate the fact that those days and days and nights and nights spent in the library and computer labs really did pay off, and we are finally, officially FINISHED!