June 4. Day156. Wilting

It has been a lot of years (I choose not to say how many) since I was a student, but I still find myself getting nervous tension at this time of year. Today is Day One of Swot Vac - the week between when the teaching semester ends and the exam week begins. It's stress central where I work.
The Queens Birthday weekend and the appearance of the jacaranda are the two markers that signal we are full on in exam season. From next year there will be no public holiday in June to set off  First Semester exam anxiety. How will I know when to panic? Perhaps the annual Winter Racing Carnival and the Stradbroke Handicap will do it. Somehow I doubt it.
Anyway, for this year at least there's a public holiday next Monday which gives most workers the chance to relax but for students it's one last chance to manically study for exams. How I remember the feeling of not having done enough, of frantic cramming and of days without adequate sleep. There were always promises to self to be so much more organised and prepared next semester - promises that were forgotten with the first post exam period drink.
Of course, these days I am the one marking exams not the one sitting them so I still deal with increased stress at this time of year. Truth is we are all wilting at this time of semester.
The image I have chosen to illustrate that feeling of dying just a little was taken just outside the journalism building at the University of Queensland today.
We are still standing but not quite our usual bright sunny selves. But don't worry, spring will come and we'll be blooming lovely again right up until the jacarandas bloom....