<p>I thought the same thing before I got here–that I wanted to stop and smell the roses now and again in college–and it’s worked out okay, though sometimes it’s hard to distinguish “chilling” from “working” because I frequently find that the two are intermingled. I’m a physics major, so I might spend 10 or 15 hours working on one problem set each week, but those aren’t necessarily 10 or 15 totally productive hours. I’ll goof off with the friends I’m working with to add some levity to the process and maybe make a cookie run in the middle.</p>
<p>It’s definitely stressful around exam times for me, but I find that I don’t mind it so much because I feel like I’m getting the most out of my time here that I could hope for. It’s also not as bad when you feel like everyone else around you is equally freaked out. I’d compare it to a sort of academic high–it seems like everything’s going a little too fast, but when you finish and take a step back to observe what you done, you think, “wow, I just accomplished something I never thought I could. And now i’m going to sleep for 24 hours straight.”</p>