 "Photo: Michel Bafondoko/The Mirror")
It's that time of year.
Each and every one of us is frazzled, stressed and on the brink of a highly caffeinated insanity, staggering around campus as shells of our former selves, now reincarnate as academic machines churning out assignments, research and 15- to 20-page papers.
Finals are here.
I think it's safe to say we are all in need of a change of pace. Having spent hours holed up researching in the ever-so-eerily-quiet library or locked up studying in a dungeon of a dorm room for the past two or three weeks, a change of location would likely revitalize our tired study routines.
What if that change of locale came in the form of home-baked goodies and junk food, friendly faces and comfy chairs?
Well, this paradise is right across the street. At the end of each semester in the wake of finals, Our Savior's Lutheran Church (OSL) opens its doors to weary Augustana studiers for food, friends and a quiet place to study. This semester's Midnight Madness will take place Sunday and Monday nights from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.
"It's a place for students to get out and have camaraderie," said OSL member and Midnight Madness organizer Joy Smolnisky.
Despite massive renovations taking place at the church, Smolnisky assures students that there will be plenty of study space available. She says that the events last spring were more limited due to the construction.
"We're hoping to have access to the expanded areas, but we won't know until Sunday," she said.
In addition to soda, coffee, snacks and ice cream sundaes, OSL is offering a new event this year. Around 9 and 9:30 p.m., in the newly constructed prayer labyrinth room, alumnus Jason Freeman will hold sessions of Laughter Yoga, which are sure to be interesting, Smolnisky said.
"It's a fun stress reliever, believe me," she said.
With all the tasty treats, activities and fellow finals victims around, however, some students say they are easily distracted.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't go there to study—I go to eat," sophomore Nathan Hults said.
For many, Midnight Madness is a refuge from the intense studying and serious memorization that normally accompany the days leading up to finals.
"I go more to hang out than to study," senior Marie Halvorson said. "When you see everyone there, you feel like you can get through finals, because everyone else is too."
Junior Martha Stai shares Halvorson's sentiments. "It's strangely nice to be around people who are suffering just as much as I am," she said.
But for some students, it isn't just the food or the friends that keep them coming back each semester. For senior Jacinta Sutphin, it's the hospitality.
"The church members are so kind and warm," she said. They make us [students] feel so much better."
OSL members do not think twice about offering their space, time and baking abilities, due to close ties to Augustana. Several church members and ministers are alumni themselves, or have children currently attending Augustana.
"There's a deep connection to Augustana—we're right next door," Smolnisky said. "Augie is such a part of our church."
Plus, Smolnisky said the church members sympathize with the stress and frenzy of finals week, most of them having been there themselves once.
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