For many students on campus, finals week is a stressful and scary time. With studying taking up most of their weekend and evenings it is a wonder many students find time to relax at all.

Some tactics students at Hamline use to relax before and during finals week can include  shooting hoops at Walker Fieldhouse or listening to music in their dorms, but other students like to get more creative with their spare time. Sophomore Jordan Tate likes to grab some art supplies and get to work painting in his on-campus apartment.

“It’s way more of a stress reliever than I thought it would be at first,” Tate said. “There’s no telling what you’ll come up with in an afternoon when a blank canvas is involved.”

Tate’s painting has yielded him a bit of attention too as he has actually had someone on his floor buy one of his works off of him. Although he said he is not in it for the recognition, he does appreciate those who stop at his door to ask what he is working on.

“It gives me comfort knowing someone wants to see what I’m doing during finals other than asking what test I’m studying for or not even knocking at all,” Tate said.

While some students seek out art to relax over finals week, junior Melissa Walsh’s answer to final’s frustration is getting off campus entirely.

“I don’t want to be around everyone during final’s week. It just ends up getting me more stressed listening to everyone talk about tests and projects,” Walsh said.

Walsh said she spends her time mostly around the local Rosedale Center with her friends when she leaves campus. She says that the mall provides an environment where she can escape the workload of college and try to look at things outside of just grades.

Junior Randy Park has a different take though.

“It’s about how you study,” Park said. “You don’t have to do it alone and that’s what makes finals week nice, everyone’s going through the same shit you are.”

Park has a study group that he meets with every night during finals week that seeks to make schoolwork not only collaborative, but enjoyable, with an environment that includes pizza and the occasional break for Uno.

“When everyone’s just chilling out together, the work feels more natural and there isn’t that frustration you normally get from sitting in a room alone and saying ‘Man, I don’t get this at all,’” Park said.

Through collaborative studying, Park has managed to even find an avenue he wants to focus on more in his education major, seeing how different types of studying environments impact test scores and learning.

“My experience with study groups has really shaped how I approach college and I know I’m not the only one. That’s why I want to apply it to my field of study,” Park said.

With finals week being such a seemingly understood period of stress for students, each student seems to have a different answer with how they handle that stress across Hamline.