How is it ALREADY mid-semester?

I was sitting in class Monday night as students trickled in and the professor weakly tried to spark small talk.

Forever on my phone, I was half-listening and half-scrolling Instagram. But then he said something that made me stop ogling Kendall Jenner in Balmain for the hundredth time.

“This is it, yeah? Once we hit Halloween the semester is over.”

Over? Over already? That can’t be.

But as we hit the mid-semester mark today, the all-too-familiar feeling of a season slipping away is undeniable.

Where has the time gone?

The leaves are really falling now, you’re burnt-out from midterms, and the homecoming tailgate and all those beloved day drinks are already behind us.

Until next semester, old friend

Halloween is the last hurrah before November begins, daylight saving time ends, and those final projects don’t seem so far away anymore.

Andy Rooney once said, “I’ve learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.”

And then that quote showed up on a lot of those Facebook memes people over 40-years-old like to share to their timelines, which is how I remembered it. But bear with me here.

Think of syllabus week and how unstoppable you felt with those pesky 15-page papers so far in the distance you would probably never have to write them. You had all the time in the world to study for that cumulative exam worth 40 percent of your final grade. Now you have a month.

Cue the aggressive procrastination. Netflix has never sounded so good. But you have so much to do!

In a moment of weakness you lose yourself in five seasons of a show you barely even like. Your rock bottom is at the literal bottom of a family sized bag of Doritos. Womp.

Time flies when you binge-watch with a guilty conscience.

Perhaps the strangest paradox of this lightning-fast second half of the semester is how much more of it you see.

You primed yourself for all-nighters by pulling them doing something you like: glueing your eyes to your laptop screen watching Sister Wives.

Next thing you know, due dates are getting closer and you actually have to do work.

To get it all done, you use your expertly-curated night owl abilities to stay up until three in the morning overusing your Keurig and cramming for your exams.

Once you start substituting Red Bull for creamer in your coffee you get distracted googling how much caffeine can actually kill you.

Late night thoughts

This leads you through a strange series of Wikipedia pages until two hours have passed and you are looking up Illuminati conspiracy theories instead of memorizing astronomy terms.

Later night thoughts

This procrastination leads to another late night, and then another, until your bedtime is routinely 4am and showering is disturbingly low on your list of priorities. If your roommate recently bought a fresh can of Febreeze, it’s probably your fault.

How desperate do you have to be for this to count as deodorant?

Amazing how quickly the semester flies by when you are awake for most of it.

You can’t wait for this night to be over. For this week to be over. For this semester to be over so you can go home and sleep at last.

But as grueling as the second half of your fall semester is, you’ll be wishing you were back at school as soon as you get home.

So in the spirit of hitting our mid-semester point: enjoy the time you have left.

My professor was right when he said the semester will speed up after Halloween. This will all be over before you know it.

A semester is worth 1/8 of the best four years of your life, after all. Don’t wish them away.