After Halloween, it’s all about making it to Thanksgiving break. But now that Turkey Day has come and gone, it’s all about making it to the end of the semester.

Easier said than done.

Sure, we’ll all probably physically make it, but the key is to have our grades in good standings come semester’s end, and if it’s possible to have some sleep in addition to good grades, then all the better.

But it’s likely that finals week isn’t the only week that is going to stress students and make the idea of saying, “screw it” more and more appealing. The two weeks leading up to it are usually pretty bad for many students as the semester comes to a close and many big projects are due right before finals week. Many professors think that they are doing a favor by making everything due the week before, but then everything in every class is due the same week.

So in the upcoming weeks it is important to keep the big picture in mind. While these last few weeks might be brutal, they will pass and then it will just be another semester in the books.

The key is to not give in to the temptation of slacking off in some of the most important weeks of the semester.

Many students might find themselves faced with the dilemma of deciding between spending their Saturday night studying for finals or going to an ugly sweater Christmas party. If you want to have your cake and eat it too, then try to plan ahead and study beforehand so you can go out or relax at night. But if planning ahead isn’t your forte, then pick books over booze. Your GPA is something that will stick with you, and whatever happens at the hypothetical party won’t be as important in the long run.

Furthermore, it is much harder to raise your GPA after it has taken a drop than to just keep it in a good spot. So for underclassmen who are thinking they have plenty of semesters to raise their GPA, that’s the wrong mentality. Hopefully you don’t intend to change majors in the future, because then you’ll be wishing you’d taken your freshman and sophomore  grades more seriously.

There are some sayings that come to mind when thinking about the next couple weeks, maybe pick one as a theme to help get you through, such as “I can sleep when I’m dead” or “Pick two: good grades, sleep, or social life” or for a little deeper meaning, follow the famed words of former NCAA men’s basketball coach, the late Jim Valvano, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”

For those graduating in December or heading off to student teach next semester, in addition to finishing your career at ISU strong, also take advantage of the opportunities you have only at ISU, such as attending a Redbird sporting event as a student, staying at Milner until the wee hours of the morning or being completely engulfed in the smell of Subway as soon as you enter Watterson.

With all that in mind, here’s a motto to avoid in the next three weeks — YOLO. True, you do only live once, but ideally, you’re only going to college once, and you’re only going to be taking these finals and turning in projects once, so if you do only have one life to live, then spend the next three weeks of it doing what you have to do to get the results that will allow you opportunities later in life. Then, your motto can really be YOLO.