From Dec. 12-14, there looms an evil confluence of papers, exams, and projects. Schemed in some sort of mid-afternoon, ivory-towered cabal, this sadistic plan is a not-so-covert attempt at making first-year graduate students wish they had made better life choices.

I'd complain about it, but I'm sure there are about a million other college students who feel like their worlds are colliding. And it happens every semester. In reality, things are going okay: I've been working hard for the last three months so that I won't completely fall apart during this very difficult time, but I can't promise that, at some point during the next 10 days, I'm not going to totally freak out.