The last mile of a marathon can be the most difficult or the easiest part of the race, depending on who you are. The final stretch to the finish line—an end you’ve been working towards for months—is right before you and what is the feeling that comes to mind? Stress ? Confidence? Tranquility? It’s different for everyone. This year’s freshmen, the class of 2022,  are centimeters away from crossing the finish line of their first semester in high school, and emotions are swirling.

Finals might make you stressed, unsure and a little insecure, but the best way to defeat those feelings is by preparing. Bella Meza ‘22 has been reviewing the material her teachers have provided and studying her huge pile of notes. “I like to take suggestions that my teacher give me. Some teachers have study guides,” she added.

Zach Kinnaman ‘22 is also making sure he asks questions in class and looks over his homework. Bell Edgmond ‘22 has “been studying an hour per night, dedicating one night for each subject.”

It depends on the class, but most finals will evaluate your level of knowledge on the whole semester, so students should try and keep their homework and tests.

The difficulty with taking finals for the first time is not having anything to measure it with. “I don’t think they’re going to be too hard, but I definitely don’t know what to expect, so they might be pretty tough, but they also might be pretty easy,” Kinnaman said.

Which is why Sailor Steimle ‘22 isn’t setting any high or low expectations, just trying her best. “I am reasonably stressed about them, but I’m not like killing myself over studying,” Steimle described.

Meza is just “excited to get it over with” so she doesn’t have to think about it anymore.

Some students believe that their biology and math exam would probably be the worst out of all their classes, particularly “because there’s so much little stuff you have to remember,” as Adler Striegel ‘22 said.

Both subjects go through a lot of material over the course of a semester, but a marathon isn’t 26.2 miles for no reason. Finals are meant to be a challenge.

There will be ups and downs in life, and freshmen year is just the beginning. Our lives are filled with marathons, when we finish one we start another; When “the semester [is] over, you start a new one,” Meza said.

Shay Rivera-Bremner ‘22 expressed that thinking of finals makes her a little stressed,  “but most of the time I’m okay because I know at the end of the day it’s freshmen year and we’re just getting started. Your teachers don’t want you to fail and they’re going to try and help you as much as they can.”