Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Spring break starts in 3 days.

It feels like just last week I was unpacking my suitcase in my dorm room, returning from winter break. Now I am looking through my clothes to decide what I might need over this 10 day break — A well deserved 10 day break.

In hindsight, time moves so fast, but in the moment it moves at normal pace. From the beginning of Spring semester, January 19th, up until today I have taken a number of quizzes, wrote two papers, completed one midterm, and submitted a few home works. At the time, I was a bit overwhelmed, as I thought “how am I going to get through this?”; however, despite feeling overwhelmed, I never once panicked because I knew I would get through it, because I could get through it. I knew I would complete the race because I have completed the race several times before. There is always a point during the school year when the intensity of work ramps up a bit. I recall back to my freshman year, having to balance my time between FME group assignments, rhetoric papers and speeches, and studying for exams, and sophomore year, managing my time between assignments for Managerial Accounting, Electronics, and my other courses. These are times I have experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed.

It is a strange emotion, feeling overwhelmed, for me at least. First, my mind begins to jump all over the place, struggling to focus on one subject, as I think about what I must also do to complete the others; Then, my mood changes, as I realize I am now at war against each of my courses. Will I let my courses dominate me, or will I dominate them?

(At this point I have used 2 different metaphors for this increase in work: A race and a war. Bare with me as I use another)

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I know I will have to keep digging to reach the light.

I can attribute my ability to reach the light, Spring Break, this year, my junior year, to the lessons I have learned my freshman and sophomore years. And similarly, I can attribute my success in my first two years at Babson, to the key lessons I took away from High School. Even in high school, when the work ramps up a bit, you learn about yourself, your work ethic. If you can make it to the light at the end of the tunnel, you know you have what it takes to continue doing so when similar circumstances arise.

And so, these experiences are what I reflected back on from January 19th up to today. I have another midterm for Econometrics tomorrow.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I will not stop digging.