Light at the End of the Tunnel

Maglin Halsey

A few weeks ago, our class was buried in books as we studied for an approaching exam. Our exams span two days; the first day we take our anatomy and histology practical, and the second day is a written exam. Not to mention, the day before our anatomy practical, we have a practice practical! We had been studying for these days of testing since before our holiday break, and there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Even more exciting was the three-day weekend that would follow our last test on Friday.

Just to put into perspective what a test week looks like at the school. Every room is full, walls are covered in writing, and trashcans are overflowing. It seems like we live in the school. You can probably imagine our desire to finish this week up and have a weekend of no studying. No school to think about.

On this week, I found myself in a position I had never experienced before. As Thursday night rolled around, all the meteorologists were predicting bad winter weather over night and into the morning. Seeing as we are in South Carolina, a state that does not often experience extreme winter weather, the threat of a wintery mix was huge. And as we all sat in the school studying that night, we realized that we might not be able to drive to school the next morning, which would postpone us taking this last part of our test. Many of us had big plans for our weekend, and postponing the test was just not an option. I am almost certain that a majority of our class was prepared to sleep at the school Thursday night simply so we would be there at 8 a.m. the next morning to take our test.

Unlike other students hoping for bad weather that would keep them out of school, there were no snow dances going on in our school. And no one wore their pajamas inside out in the hopes that it would somehow bring the winter weather. We were wishing with all our might that nothing would freeze overnight.

Well, we were fortunate that the winter weather wasn’t as wintery as predicted. We were all at the school at 8 a.m. the next morning, despite a few car doors being frozen shut. It was quite a relief, and it showed me how much work we really are putting into our education. In many other instances, I wouldn’t mind having extra time to study thanks to a snow day, but not this time. I had put in many hours of studying, like my classmates, and we were thankful for the break.

When we came back to school the next week, all of the walls were wiped clean, the trashcans were emptied, and that light at the end of the tunnel had dimmed a bit. But we will find it again when the next test rolls around.