Exams are about to hit the West Ottawa campus. That means in the next week, there will be lots of all-nighters, cramming during every minute of the day, and praying that your homework and exam prep sheets will magically put all the information into your brain before class. Arguably, these twelve things are much better than dealing with the stress of exams.

Reorganizing a Rue21 store

Reorganizing the sales rack of Rue21 sounds easier than organizing my thoughts long enough to study for my AP Lang exam

When you find out an essay is due the night before

Nothing’s like coming home from a hard day at school and laying on the couch with a bag of potato chips for 6 hours. As you are heading to bed, you abruptly stop in your tracks to remember that you had an essay due the next morning. Suddenly you run up the stairs, only to find that your laptop was left at school. By this point, you have no idea what to do since your teacher has warned you about this essay for the last week and half. At least you know you won’t completely fail high school and honestly that’s better than exams.

Getting food poisoning from your favorite ice cream shop

Going to your favorite ice cream place with all your friends and ordering the biggest bowl of ice cream you can find is an amazing feeling. Until 40 minutes later you throw it all up because they left the whip cream out a little too long for your body’s liking. Even though you can’t get out of bed for 2-8 days and you’re throwing up every hour, that is in some way better than your Psychology exam.

Having my internet history be read out loud on Good Morning America

That would be less embarrassing than my Trig grade.

Spring break in a retirement home

Every year when school starts the vacation that everyone is looking forward to is Spring Break. As that day of freedom is approaching, you get more and more excited to find out what exotic place your family is going to this year. Then, your parents sit you down one night to tell you that they are going to Hawaii… but you are going to stay with your Grandma at the retirement home. Spending a whole week going to bed at 6pm, playing endless hours of cards, and eating mushy food may not be the ideal vacation, but it is a little get away from the memory of my Biology exam.

Watch a YouTube video that won’t stop buffering

If watching that little circle go round and round for hours on end means I don’t have to study for my Geometry exam, then I will gladly stare at it for an easy distraction.

Running out of hot water in the winter.

Nothing is as beautiful as standing under the hot water of a shower on a cold winter day. With the warm pellets of water beating on your skin, the goosebumps you once had start to slowly disappear. It’s almost as if an angel above came down and gave you all the hot water in the world. Until is goes from burning hot to frigid cold in .6 seconds. Standing there with shampoo covering all the hair you have, you are madly trying to rise it out without your back hitting the freezing water, making you look absolutely ridiculous. But if suffering through this horrid shower means I don’t have to study for my Cultures exam than I’m all for it.

Getting any kind of advice from Ozzy Osbourne

Anything that he says will make more sense than any of my history exam notes.

Seeing Humane Society commercials

If crying over a 30 second commercial means a mini study break from Chemistry than heck I’ll watch 800 before going back to work.

Forgetting how to breathe

Because if I pass out the teacher will be forced to exempt me from my World History exam.

Practicing my kickboxing with a vicious kangaroo

Getting beaten to a pulp is way better than trying to do my AP Lit exam review through my tears. If I’m gonna be crying, it might as well me over something meaningful.