I Didn't Study—And It Cost Me More Than a Grade

I sat down for the exam and realized I couldn't remember the last time I felt rested. Not just sleep, but that kind of quiet where your brain isn't screaming at you about everything you haven't done. I hadn't studied. I told myself I could wing it—read the questions carefully, answer what I knew, guess the rest. I circled keywords, rewrote confusing prompts, tried every trick I’d ever read online. But my mind kept drifting. Not to the material, but to the reason I was here in the first place: the pressure to keep up, to not fall behind, to always look like I had it together. I was hungry, exhausted, and every time I filled in a bubble, I felt less like a person and more like a machine running out of battery. I passed. Barely. But the cost wasn’t the grade—it was the way I started to flinch every time someone mentioned exams, the way I avoided looking at myself in the mirror after. I learned how to survive, not how to learn. And I’m still paying for it, long after the test was over. #AcademicBurnout #CollegeReality #TestAnxiety #Education