1. Before you start your freshman year, you think, “This is great! What a life!” because everyone else has to go off to school in August, while you’re free as a bird until late September.

2. …And then all of your hometown friends go off to school and you spend your last month of summer trying to figure out solo activities that you can do. *Cut to: you bored out of your mind, counting down the days until school starts*

3. Then you finally start school and it’s like jumping onto the hood of a speeding train and immediately gripping it for dear life because holy shit why is everything moving so fast? What do you mean midterms begin in a month?? And my first quiz is in a week??? I HAVEN’T EVEN WARMED UP.

4. But by your senior year, you’re so used to the insane pace, you’re basically James Bond.

5. Your quarter looks something like this:

Week 1: Woo! Classes just started! Let’s enjoy college!
Week 2: Aghh what do you mean that essay is due on Friday??
Week 3: OMG HOW IS IT ALREADY MIDTERM SEASON.
Weeks 4-8: I JUST FINISHED MY MIDTERMS AND IT’S ALREADY TIME FOR SECOND AND THIRD MIDTERMS.
Week 9: Thank goodness. Midterms are done and I can finally rela-OMG FINALS NOOOO
Week 10: Death.

6. Even if you try not to slack in classes, you’re eternally cramming for something, because if you fall behind a little, you have to sprint like a maniac to catch back up.

7. Spring quarter is actually the worst, because all of your semester-system friends get out of school in early May, while you’re not freed from this speeding train until mid-June.

8. So, when they’re complaining about studying for finals, you’re crying a little because you’re still limping through midterms with no end in sight.

9. And then when your finals do roll around, all of those same semester friends are busy posting exciting Instagram photos of their summer vacation, and you’re just sitting there …in your library dungeon… studying…. again.

10. Your first day of class is rarely just “Syllabus Day.” You usually have a “Syllabus 20 Minutes” because your professor has so much information they need to cover, and they can’t waste an entire class just talking about the syllabus.

11. If you need to miss one class, it’s chill. You’ll just miss out on an entire unit that you need to master before the midterm next week. No big deal.

12. You can only partially enjoy being home for the holidays, because as soon as New Years Day arrives, you need to be back at school in a day or two.

13. A class that lasts 15 weeks sounds like a vacation, and whenever your semester friends complain about the intensity, you’re always fighting the urge to be that friend who responds with, “You think you have it bad…”

14. Professors still hold class on smaller weekday holidays, because there’s just too much material, and can’t lose an entire day to fun barbecues. But the class isn’t mandatory, so you can totally skip it. LOLOLOLOL no you can’t; you need to pass this class.

15. As much as you hate the quarter system, if any of your semester friends try to diss it, you always find yourself defending it. The quarter system may be a pain in the ass, but it’s YOUR pain in the ass, goddamnit.