It’s that time of year. Midterms are kicking our asses, homework is piling up, the weather is getting worse and the rent is due. If you’re me, your bike tires are going flat, you slept through your alarm again, your fridge is bare and your younger sister just broke the news of yet another facial piercing. If you’re me, or anyone else on this campus, you’re freaking out.

And with good reason. You have a D in the one class standing between you and graduation in December. Maybe you have $60 to your name and payday is two weeks away. Your girlfriend called it quits right after you bought her the Sweetest Day bouquet. I hear you. Life is rough right now; it’s just that time of year. But I’m here to tell you that despite the horrible things going on in our lives, there is hope.

Well, maybe there isn’t. I can’t really think of anything that’s going to make the next two weeks go smoothly. I could drink a pot of coffee every hour and still not have the energy to finish all of my homework and my bike tire isn’t going to pump itself. Maybe we’re all just screwed. Excellent.

But if that’s the case, we can at least rest assured that we’re all equally miserable. That’s always comforting, right? At least you’re not the only person seriously considering burning your textbooks and joining the circus. And at least if you did join the circus, you wouldn’t be the only one stressing about learning how to walk a tightrope. I’d be right next to you wondering how to pump my flattened unicycle tire. The grass isn’t always greener, is it?

That’s what gets me through during times like these; knowing that no matter how bad it is for me, it’s probably worse for you. I guess I’m just asking that you continue to suffer, that we all continue to suffer so that this weekend’s Halloween celebration can be that much sweeter. Because I don’t think I’d be able to handle everything going on in life right now if I didn’t know that you were pulling your hair out, too.

So get ready for this weekend, because temporary escapes like it are pretty much all we have. And as much as I hate the inevitable passage of time when it comes to that test at the end of the week, I’m glad it’s out of my hands because it also means that no matter how much tomorrow sucks, Saturday is still coming and will still mean Halloween for all of us.

So, it’s on its way. Saturday is coming; temporary escape is on the horizon. The light at the end of the tunnel is shining, however faintly. We’ll all breathe that short sigh of relief, pause and exhale that sigh of, “Holy shit, another week,” and do it all again. Together. Isn’t that beautiful?

It’s really corny, but I love when people say God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. Even if it isn’t true, and God is really just hoping that the fact that my sister has a hole in her lip now will just push me over the edge, I like to think it is. I’m a big fan of false hope and delusions. They get me through the day.

Early Sunday morning, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get to class Monday. I didn’t have time to get to a bike shop for a new tire, let alone read Act II of that play in Spanish. I couldn’t even see the Halloween light at the end of the tunnel. My mom called that afternoon to tell me that my sister, the one with the holes in her ears, lip, nose and tongue, would be driving all the way down to see me with her old bicycle for my use. I know how I’m getting to class for the rest of the semester. Things have a way of falling into place when we all suffer. I can see that Halloween light.

Kristine Gill is a junior newspaper journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].