May the odds be ever in your favor.

It’s that special time of year, everyone: when our elders come up with fun, exciting ways to further test our knowledge. It feels like a final countdown. Ever since you got that final study guide from your professor or were assigned that final project, your stomach dropped. The amount of work before you seemed impossible. You looked around your fellow classmates and easily could see them making it through the next few weeks, but you knew you wouldn’t be so lucky. As a first year, I keep waiting for upperclassmen to volunteer as tribute for me, but so far no luck. In other words, we have all reached the Hunger Games of Kenyon: Finals Week.

Let’s be honest, Katniss could not have survived without Haymitch. Let The Thrill be your mentor for these Hunger Games.

• Tip 1: Train hard and don’t get distracted. Katniss never got too distracted by all the pomp and surrounding events. Although all those parties and Cove deliveries may seem like they would be fun, you’ll be thanking no one when you can’t remember who wrote “Two Roads Diverged” on your English final because all you can remember was how scary it was to try to drunkenly choose between taking icy Middle Path and the Peirce route home at three in the morning.
• Tip 2: Help each other. Although it may seem like everyone in the Hunger Games is out to get each other (well for the most part, they are) Katniss succeeds because she isn’t as bloodthirsty as Cato. Katniss had Rue, and you should find a group to study with, as well. Although your allies may have to “die” in the end, it’s may be nice to have some people to depend on.
•  Tip 3: Use your resources. Every so often, Katniss’s sponsors would give her something to keep her strength up. The college has so graciously done this as well, and Midnight Breakfast–though it won’t be parachuted into your dorm room–will certainly clear any depressed haze you feel as your stare at that Economics textbook.
• Bonus Tip: Don’t fall prey to fear. Everyone told Katniss that the Hunger Games would be the worst bloodshed and that she had no chance.  In the end, she overrides the system. Don’t override Kenyon, but definitely don’t let the hype of finals overcome you. No one likes a twitching bundle of hyped nerves. Eat some chocolate and keep studying, the end is near.

Keep your head level and find some tree to hide in to weather some of the craziness that is ahead. And don’t worry, after this we have the Quarter Quell to look forward to: second semester finals. May the odds be ever in your favor.