'he Cadre, Tues, Dec, 3,197“.

Christmas Message ’

Christmas is that time of rear when the student exper— Lences a jubilant feeling :nown as "The Great Lift"!! Sut...the period directly )receding Christmas is a :ime of unbelievable pressure :aused by mammoth studying sessions (or cramming) We see too many sunrises, get :00 little sleep, eat too nuch junk food, and our )ottoms become spread out in a semi-permanent fashion from sitting for hours on and. We become round should— :red, chain smoke, our feet fall asleep, and we suffer from manual difficulties ;uch a writer's cramps, and :he two finger tic, for :hose who type.

How can that hopeless ;tate of semi delirium we ill go through be explained? Everyone knoWs that panicked Feeling of "Will I ever :now enough for the exam?" )r "How can I stretch this )aper to 1,000 (2,000;3,000; -0,000) words?" or "God, Jill I ever finish this )roject?" and yes, I'm sure rou are all familiar with :hose desparate time ration- Lng.

"O.K. - It'll take me five lours to read the book. Then 5 guess maybe ten minutes for supper. O.K. Then I got inother five or six hours 3or the rough draft. Then I guess I'll take an hour )ff for Hawaii 5—0 (geez, what a luxury!!) And then ['11 get down to the copy— Lng (typing)out. Then, sleep ...for three whole hours, Zanother luxury during exam :ime!) I should set two, no, naybe three alarm clocks, )ecause if I miss my morn- Lng class I may as well kill

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For The” Student

myself.

I don't think any segment of the population threatens themselves as much as stud- ents do in this pre-Christ- mas period. Common statements at this time of year are:

"If I don't do such and such, I'll — a.kill myself b.commit suicide c.say goodbye to this cruél,cruel world."

Our senses of humour be- come warped. A student who is in the deadly grip of the cramming stage will find almost anything that is not connected to the higher intellectual pursuits funny: somebody passing wind or burping suddenly, or the thought of the professor of whose exam you are studying for passing wind or burping suddenly in class, or the RAUNCHIEST of dirty jokes. Once laughter hits the study scene, it becomes hysterical and can take up to an hour to subside.

Days, and then weeks (and maybe a couple of months if you are extremely diligent) of this studying can cause you to wish that maybe you could drop dead, itcan make you get insane feelings that your brain is overcrowded and all those things you are trying to stuff to the front of your memory will get sick of the slum con— ditions of your mind and move out before the examIThis phenomena can be called the "Blank Panic". However, once, 'you get into the exam room, things have a 50% chance of "coming back to<you". .5

Yes, we all know the in-

E

sanity, the pressure, the exertion...ThoSe days when 1400 supposedly normal, healthy people in a supp— osedly normal, healthy in— vironment of higher learning hover close to the brink of that collegiate psychological disorder known as a "break— down". I But, suddenly, it's over. The papers and projects get done, the exams are taken. Paper by paper, exam by G exam...you reach that form- erly unattainable recovery period known as Christmas. You may weigh ten pounds more or less, you may have broken out from eating all that junk food and not get— ting enough sleep and you may feel extremely frazzled but there's something that

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CRIMI’S MAL Royalty lbll Saturday

Desperateu mqlired

WELL,This is fiefime of year when I salad” 1‘0 01‘8le my harmed ‘

expression as ‘ery some in droves BEQGlNG’me,’ for CX‘ M1 Sions, / re writes, stiles.7 eh. ' Goo): ICfiN'T WAIT FOR. autumn, 4'

finality hand crafted goods? availahh for °°6 purchase, from the ‘craftsfoluo

makes up for all that... RELIEF! 0h, wonderful,beaut— iful, exhiliarating healing relief! You can now sleep, get drunk, go Christmas shopping, or go home to your folks. You become filled‘with an overwhelming goodwill that heightens the general nice feeling of Christmas itself and you vow you will never procrastinate again. Oh, it's wonderful! The final stage of recovery is when you can actually look back at the last month or so, and, although you won't' remember much of it, you will be able to smile, maybe even laugh about the whole miser— able thing! In fact...it actually_won't.seem as bad

as it really was.

MERRY CHRISTMASATO YOU ALL!

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