Ah. The lovely sense of completion when you turn in your last project/finish your last final/have no more academic responsibilities for a semester.

That sense of completion is immediately followed by consternation about what to do next. I have some ideas for you.

1. Sleep. Chances are, you stayed up late studying/working and you should take a nap. Even if you didn’t stay up late last night, you are probably chronically sleep deprived because college.
2. Read the book you’ve been putting off. Reading something that’s not on a syllabus is delightfully freeing. Dig into some good fiction (or bad fiction or really anything you want. Just enjoy it!)
3. Enjoy the outdoors. You’ve probably been holed up in the library/coffee shop/your room for the last few weeks, so get outside and enjoy the fresh air (especially good at the end of spring semester). You can take your book outside to read, go hiking, or sunbathing, or swimming. Just get back outside!
4. Hang out with your friends. If the end of your semester is anything like mine, you’ve probably spent 3 weeks alienating everyone who cares about you. Go spend time with them, preferably doing something that makes you all laugh.
5. Pack your stuff. Now, this one will not be appealing for everyone. That’s ok. But for some of you, packing might be a really positive post-finals activity because you’re so excited to go home. Enjoy it.
6. Work out (preferably after sleeping and eating, since you probably didn’t do either while prepping for finals). You might have let working out slip as the deadlines piled on, so get one good workout in before you leave. It can help you release the stress from finals.
7. Write a blog post. Because really, you’ve probably neglected your blog for weeks (or months). Unless you used blog writing to procrastinate.

What’s the first thing you do when finals are over? If you’re still heading into finals, best of luck! (And what are you doing here? Go study!)