It’s no secret that Easter term is intense. Between exam revision and coursework deadlines, it’s easy to get swept up in a frenzy of panic. Eventually, after so many hours spent between the library walls, you start to confuse Pericles for Lysander, and mix up your coursework deadline with your friend’s birthday.

As an antidote to this revision mania, I’ve turned to my small rituals, the little things that help keep me grounded during the chaos of this term. Join me as I reflect on my beloved rituals, and maybe even receive some inspiration of your own.

Bench breathers

There is a bench in Newnham that might be responsible for getting me through second year. On the days when my mind is overly cluttered and the outside world feels abrasive, I slip into the enveloping quiet of Newnham Village for a bit of peace. There is a coffee shop at the top of the road that my bench sits on where I spend a questionable amount of my student finance. I’ll settle myself on the bench, sip my coffee, soak in the silence and just let myself think. Maybe it’s just the impact of the caffeine, but I find the solitude a balm for my tired brain. Sometimes I’m not alone, but joined by a curious squirrel or the stunning golden retriever that frequents the area. These interruptions are very much welcomed.

“I find the solitude a balm for my tired brain”

This ritual is one I’ve held onto stubbornly, sticking to it come rain or shine. One time I sat there in the pouring rain, huddled over the warmth of my coffee and sheltered by my umbrella like I was in a Netflix romcom. Did I meet the love of my life? No. But I did have a nice chat with a lovely lady who came over, slightly amused, to see if I was ok.

Daily Duolingo

Language students, please don’t come for me. Do I think I’ll become fluent in a new language by three mere minutes of practice a day? Absolutely not. Is this just my way of bragging about my year-long streak? Maybe. But, like every Cambridge student, as an avid overachiever, there is something satisfying in getting approval from that hard-to-please owl.

On a more serious note, it’s nice to learn something for fun. There are plenty of days where I’ve crawled into bed feeling defeated by work: I’ve not understood a word of the reading or gotten into a fight with my essay and lost. On these days, the last thing I want to do is translate ‘the drunk parrot is angry’ into another language. Yet with every translation made, there is that small, familiar buzz in my brain. A buzz that stems from finding enjoyment in learning. After a long day of struggling through work, it’s nice to have a small reminder that learning can be, and is meant to be, fun. And for that, I am very grateful to Duolingo.

Dates with friends

This is probably the most important ritual. Study dates, walking dates, coffee dates (you can probably guess I consume far too much caffeine). There is nothing more cathartic than huddling in the corner of Cafe Nero, pouring your heart out over a disastrous supervision to someone who just gets it. These dates have often pulled me back from the precipice of work-induced despair, and prevented me from embarking on ill-conceived plans of quitting my degree to open a bakery. Cambridge can feel like an isolating experience: often it can seem like you are the only one daunted by the never-ending workload, or struggling to understand the complex concepts constantly thrown at us. Something as simple as grabbing coffee with a friend can be a necessary reminder that I am not, in fact, the only one struggling, and I am certainly not facing it alone.

“Grabbing coffee with a friend can be a necessary reminder that I am not, in fact, the only one struggling”

There is also something soothing about the normalcy of meeting with a friend. The moments when the conversation drifts away from exams and coursework and the absurdity that is Cambridge. It’s often these moments, the times when you talk about absolutely nothing, where the most precious memories are forged. Will I remember the essay I panicked over in ten years time? Probably not. Will I remember laughing deliriously over a ridiculous comment one of us had made due to our sleep-deprived state? Definitely. Though it can feel impossible amongst the suffocating workload of Easter term, dates with my friends is one ritual I will stubbornly carve out time for.

This article is more sentimental than I intended. Perhaps that is simply a reflection of how much I treasure these rituals. Among the mayhem of term, it really is important to find small moments of joy. For me, my rituals provide just that, and I am incredibly grateful to them for doing so.