{"id":11548,"date":"2013-11-04T14:23:02","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T19:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=11548"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:59:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:59:52","slug":"crunch-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2013\/crunch-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Crunch Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Crunch Mode\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Siobhan\u2019s Blog \u2013 Crunch Mode<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s official \u2013 I can no longer pretend that it\u2019s just the beginning of the semester, and that I don\u2019t really need to get stressed about assignments or spend too much of my weekends devoted to devouring novels and churning out essays. Thanksgiving has somehow come and gone, and I have already handed in a paper and presented in a seminar. As scary as it is to admit, in less than two months exams will be underway and yet another semester at 杏吧原创 will have come and gone in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell-tale Signs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The tell-tale signs of students beginning to get into crunch mode are evident all across campus; the wait for a hand-crafted beverage at the Starbucks on campus easily exceeds fifteen minutes, which always makes me think that the majority of 杏吧原创 has blinders on for any coffee shop that doesn\u2019t serve their beloved caffeine out of the iconic white and green cups (Roosters, Second Cup or even Timmy\u2019s anyone?!); the wait in the lines for library printers come in close second to those of the coffee shops; I\u2019ve even had to wait in line to speak to professors during their office hours! Clearly us 杏吧原创 students are a patient bunch \u2013 especially when caffeine is the reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only have I come to recognize the increased hustle and bustle of students and professors around campus after three years as an English student, but I\u2019ve also come to know my own signs of mid-semester stress. The kitchen becomes my semi-permanent home (escaping when necessary for sleep, work or the occasional, and often necessary, social break) where I can split my time between the books and the baking. When I lived at home, my family would always know when I had a paper or midterm approaching, because they would come home to the aromas of my newest baking endeavour – my most fruitful form of procrastination. I have yet to impose this strange habit of mine upon my roommate, but I have a feeling that she won\u2019t find too much to complain about when I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make Something<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, why, you may ask, do baking and writing go hand in hand for me? I think it\u2019s the notion that I can make something out of close to nothing. Some of my earliest memories involve me standing on a little blue stool in my childhood kitchen, acting as sous-chef to my mother as we produced batch after batch of cookies, muffins and other numerous creations. My mom taught me the secrets of the baking world, and I learned quickly that I had the capacity to make something out of nothing with just a few tools and ingredients. While the process of putting words to a page is often more time consuming and considerably more demanding on my brain, the ease with which I can turn a pile of ingredients into an edible concoction always seems to spur my desire to turn that blank page into something more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also the most delicious form of procrastination I\u2019ve yet to discover, so unless I ever find a better option, baking will always accompany this time of year for me. Despite my attempts to ignore it, it is undoubtedly that middle of the semester crunch where all of a sudden everything is due and the campus explodes into a fury of highly-caffeinated students with a look of determination and purpose in their eye (or maybe it\u2019s just the lack of sleep that gives our eyes that certain twinkle). And on that note, I\u2019ve got a banana bread to bake before I can attend to the paper and midterm that are so unkindly calling my name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck to everyone with whatever this semester has thrown at you, and I hope you\u2019ve all found your methods for coping \u2013 no matter how averse or strange they may seem to the ignorant observer. I feel ya; keep on doing what you do, whatever keeps you sane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Siobhan\u2019s Blog \u2013 Crunch Mode It\u2019s official \u2013 I can no longer pretend that it\u2019s just the beginning of the semester, and that I don\u2019t really need to get stressed about assignments or spend too much of my weekends devoted to devouring novels and churning out essays. Thanksgiving has somehow come and gone, and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26,27,28,25,849],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-news","category-siobhans-blog","category-student-blogs","category-student-voices"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53699,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11548\/revisions\/53699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}