The F Word

Finals. 

The seemingly most dreaded word for all 18-25 year olds is finally here! Would you believe me though when I say I am glad for it. The final exams I have tomorrow and Tuesday are the markers of my accomplishments of the past four months, and the springboard for what is yet to come. 

When my finals are done, I will be travelling soon after to Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt with some of the closest friends that I have made since starting AUB...and I can finally see a camel! 

Final exams mean the semester is over, and leaves my academic future up in the air for opportunities and different outcomes. Mainly though, surviving these finals is a symbol of the experience I continue to have every day in Beirut. How just like in the U.S. universities, the students pull all-nighters in the library, eating a diet of Pepsi, crackers, chocolate and McDonald's, or in the very lebanese way, eating way too many Shawarma sandwiches or Manaousheh. 

I get to witness the stress that comes alongside the hundreds of engineering, pre-med and architecture students during exams, and thank the Lord that I am in no way interested in that field of study. 

I get to meet or get closer with friends who can now sleep standing up or in their chairs, and who don't let me take a shared taxi home after a night of studying. 

I get to see the sunset from campus, which is worth it, but luckily I have a home to go back to so I do not have to see sunrise as well. 

I get the time to enjoy where I am, with my amazing friends, and feel blessed I am still learning abroad.

So here's to FINALS

Wish me luck!