Finals….finals….finals. My preparation for finals has kicked into overdrive this week. I am really starting to feel the pinch.

One thing remains on my mind as I prepare to finish up this semester. “Sprint to the finish line.” I keep telling myself to sprint with each assignment and every task.

Through the sounds of toys, children, and Fat Albert cartoon shows, I try to knock out each thing that requires my attention.

It is starting to feel less like “Life of the Returning Student,” and more like “Stressful Life of the Returning Student.”

The last thing that I want to do is appear short with my family when it tries to communicate with me, but it seems as if tasks that should take a matter of minutes, take me hours, sometimes even days, to finish.

I am reminded of the bathing product commercial that says “Calgon…take me away.” Not that I am in the least frustrated by the blessing of family life. I only wish that it were easier to balance it all.

I have also been dealing with a disease called Lupus. This is something that I recently learned that I have, and it makes everything all the more hard to endure.

Lupus is an auto-immune deficiency disease where the immune system, which normally fights against disease and infection, fights healthy cells, and causes the body to, in essence, attack itself.

Things like a common cold, which to the normal body may cause a few days of feeling under the weather, can lead to me being in the hospital.

It’s not something that I feel requires sympathy or even acknowledgement from my peers, but it is something that I have to remain mindful about. Especially during finals when everything is stressful.

One of the side effects of Lupus is the extreme lack of energy and given the fact that I am a college student, energy is one thing that I need, and need lots of.

I am sure that the majority of people that come into contact with me have no idea that I have Lupus, and it is possible that even fewer know what it is.

I guess that my hope is that if one person reads this column and can relate to my trails as a returning student, as a parent, or as a person with Lupus, I may be able to do what I always hope to do which is to impact change.