Faces of Hell Month

Hello, everyone!

It's been a long month since my last post. What happened to me? Hell month happened.

Because of finals and deadlines fast approaching, March became a toxic and stressful month for us students. You had exams falling on the same day, papers and group paper deadlines here and there, reports and class outputs to submit, and for the graduating students, thesis defense and last academic requirements to finish the sem. Plus, you had finals and submissions to deal with after the Holy Week holidays. Luckily though, all my workload was due before the Holy Week break so I basically started summer early.



For the record, I never felt so desperate, stressed, and burned out during that time. Not that I'm saying I experienced the worst compared to everyone, last month just got very overwhelming. Compared to the past, I never cried, prayed, drank coffee (in fact, it was my first time), and gone through a series of 'deaths' and 'resurrections' as much as before. It was a crazy sem-ender, to top it all off.

So with that, I've decided to give you a compilation of what basically happened to me throughout the month of March. I present to you, "The Faces of Hell Month".

First, there was the 'realization' face. From the name itself, this came to life when requirements, deadlines, and exams started piling up. As you can see below, it seems like I was thinking on how to allot my time for each task, but in reality I was busy fearing for what would happen as time moved closer to each deadline.

Next, there was the face of 'shock' due to the number of things to do.

Okay, maybe it's not as seen here, so instead...

...this seems more appropriate.


Next, the 'don't panic' face.

This would happen whenever I'd find a study desk and a chair to sit, just to contemplate and condition myself before working.


If that wouldn't work, I'd try reassuring myself that everything would be okay, so I smile.

If it still wouldn't work, I'd resort to this.

Next is the game face, or what I would rather call the 'fight' face.

Obviously, I wouldn't do this in front of people because it'd look very weird. Instead I'd imagine myself doing this and think of my favorite 'fight' battle cry while trying to finish my work. Thankfully, it kept me going for a time.

If the stress got too much to handle, this would happen:

The 'desperation' face; the time when everything starts to fall into place, thus testing your patience and endurance throughout the ordeal.

The desperation face wouldn't be limited to this though, it would vary according to the level of stress.


You would have the 'sit by a corner' face when you'd get overwhelmed,

A 'pulling your eyelids' face when you're starting to take a toll of all the workload,

The 'pulling your hair and/while running' face when you're at the brink of your working capacity,

The 'proclamation' or 'asking life' face, done while kneeling down, when you want to ask the whole world why you're in such a distressed state,

And if you gone through the ones I listed above, you would eventually resort to...

...the flat face.

At sane occasions and when I get to calm myself down, I'd go back to work and face my school requirements with a cup of coffee.

Ideally, I'd think I'd look like this because of the great coffee mix I would make.

In reality, I turned out this way.

For the first time I drank coffee, I got myself to stay awake for more than 24 hours. It was a good thing that this only happened once.

It then led to the 'zombie' face.

On a random note, I'd sometimes imagine myself with the 'exorcist' face. And yes, this is referring to the famous 360 degree turn kind of thing, but this time it's not lateral. It'd be something like this.

And I have no idea why part of my hair got cut.

Eventually, there came a time that I had the 'crying' face.

It was when everything was so overwhelming that I feared that I wasn't doing anything right anymore. Not to sound negative, but I felt like I was nearing the end of the world. For one whole week, I didn't do anything but cry no matter how much I tried to control it.

But because of determination to finish the sem and moral support from family and friends, be they fellow classmates or schoolmates, I was able to make it out alive.

Thus, the 'triumph' face.

In reality, I ended up this way because of the exhaustion.

So what did I get from this crazy experience? Everything would come to an end no matter what happened  midway. Eventually.