Well, midterm exams — and fall break, sadly — have come and gone.

This was my first-ever set of midterms.

Now that it’s over, I have to say, it was a bit, how do you say, underwhelming?

Well, not that I’m complaining or anything!

Believe me, I’m glad that they went smoothly and without incident.

But I do feel somewhat surprised by how they went down.

Allow me to explain.

First off, I was expecting that midterm exams would all occur in the three days before break, or at least within the span of a single week.

So I was a bit surprised when I had exams in the middle of September that were labeled as midterms.

After all, one would expect midterms to fall in the middle of the term, around the seven- or eight-week mark.

Some of my midterms fell in week five or six.

Upon considering this matter, I think that it’s wise not to complain.

After all, I’d rather have five exams spread out over a relatively lengthy period of a few weeks rather than squeezed into just a few days.

We’ll save that particular brand of stress for finals week, right?

Another thing I found odd was the lack of stress and fuss about midterms, both for me personally and for others around me.

Midterms really did not garner as much attention and dread as I had expected.

Even when I had two backto-back exams on the last day of classes, I was too focused on my excitement about going home for fall break.

I mean, which deserves more thought: major exams in my Data Science and Intelligence classes, or my upcoming plans for fall break?

As a side note: my plans for fall break were nonexistent.

When I say ‘plans’, I mean that I was deciding what to order from my favorite Thai restaurant when I got home that night and counting down the hours until I’d be happily reunited with my golden retriever.

But to get back to the point, almost nobody around me seemed all that worried about midterms.

The library wasn’t any busier than normal.

I didn’t see anyone stumbling around like a stressed-out, sleepdeprived zombie surviving only on coffee and ramen.

All in all, it was just strangely anticlimactic.

Just another week of class, really.

But hey — I’ll take it!

I’m sure once finals week rolls around I won’t be talking about how anticlimactic it is.

Instead, in all liklihood, I’ll probably be absolutely at my wits’ end.

I’ll be trying to study for exams, pack for winter break, prepare for Christmas, stay healthy and get enough sleep to be classified as a functioning human being.

Lakers, I hope that your midterms went as smoothly as mine.

Enjoy the next, oh, six weeks or so.

Enjoy them, before finals roll around and make us all question why we ever thought that a college education was a good idea.