Zombie-fying hellweek

A student’s life is centered on quizzes, assignments, projects and exams. Yes, exams. Say hello, to finals week, second day.

For many of us students, every hour counts to study.

I have always been a study freak even since grade school.  I preferred to study alone in my room. Now that college requirements require a lot of group work and eventually group discussion, I have been exposed to various styles of studying.

For one, there are those who are home buddies. They prefer to stay within the comforts of one’s home where everything is within reach. There are also coffee maniacs who would want to study out in cafés and coffee shops. They say it spares them from the temptation of falling asleep in one’s bed. The last style is to study at the university library.

I used to be this one when our one and only library was still open. It was such a wonder being in one room filled with books. On a seat near the big windows, overlooking a side of the city.

Now it just too difficult especially that we have been zombie-fied.

A common jargon circulating around in the University of the Philippines (UP) community since time immemorial is “Hell week.”

It is a noun pertaining to the “bloodiest week” of the semester. It is full of requirements to pass, reports to do and exams if any. This is usually the week before the scheduled finals week. Finals week in UP is not that hellish since some professors prefer to finish their course early.

If I were to compare the week to a movie, I cannot.  It is worse than Saw III but comforting and enjoyable as the 3 Idiots’ “Aal iz well” mantra. You cannot take a long pause. If you do, you’d suffer. A quick break is acceptable though. But anything more than that would throw you out of the game.

The term is also applicable to the finals week itself where the exams are sometimes bloodier.

I first heard of hell week when I was in my freshman year. I thought it was only some kind of expression. The conservatives even condoned me for using the word hell. They say it’s inappropriate, negative and for some reason, unlucky.

Luckily though, I was able to survive the most grueling battle in college for four semesters. I accepted the challenge of no sleeping and at times no eating just to get the work done. Every hell week was a game on.

Because of social media’s pervasiveness, the jargon has spread to other universities as well. They use the term Hell Week for their own versions as well.

There may be major differences because of UP’s culture but the common denominator really is school work.

However zombie-fied we may be, we students do not forget the concept of fun.

We have fun on social media as the world went dark in support of the anti cybercrime law. The feeds were flooded with shares and retweets of possible incidents when the law would be truly enforced.

When it would be serious, I wonder where the fun would go. Maybe there would still be fun in the company of our own comrades. The real world is full of mates that you cannot choose.

May be we would go back to being zombies. No sleep, no eating, and add to that no speaking as well or posting online, for that matter.

Yet, the end is sweet for all of us students who burn our eyebrows for the future.

I just hope when I wear my ecru dress topped with a maroon alibata sash, I am zombie-fied no more.

**Published in the Freeman Newspaper on October 9, 2012