I’m Michelle Callaghan, a second-year graduate student at Villanova University. This is our new column, “‘Cat in the Stacks.” I’m the ‘cat. Falvey Memorial Library is the stacks. I’ll be posting about living that scholarly life, from research to study habits to embracing your inner-geek, and how the library community might aid you in all of it.

Let’s try something together.

Put your hand in the air.

Seriously, do it. No one’s judging you.

Okay, now reach a little higher.

A little higher.

Higher still.

Now go to your highest.

Done? Perhaps you think so. Now really reach.

You thought you were at your highest, but you still had more to go–you thought you were on E but you still had gas in the tank. Think you can apply this to your life? Of course you can.

So today is apparently Reach as High as You Can Day, a national holiday which has no traceable origins and very well might be an internet creation that caught fire one time and made it onto National Day wikis to be forever embroidered upon the calendar tapestry of the world wide web. That being said, I think it’s an awesome designation for a day (and a fair lot better than Ex-Spouse Day, which it also happens to be, but certainly on par with the awesomeness of National Dolphin Day–another April 14 contender).

You could take the day literally and reach high–do yoga, stretch, dance with your arms in the air. Or you can take it a little more figuratively and use the exercise above as a teachable moment. How often do you feel close to giving up? How often do you feel like you’ve given your all and you can’t possibly dig any deeper? In those moments, you have more in your tank than you would ever believe.

With finals coming up, we’re all dragging. But we’ve been here before–if not in college, then in life–and we know we have what it takes. As my high school coach used to say, “What you keep, you lose forever.” When you think you’re at wit’s end, you’re usually not. Dig in.

And come to the Library–that’s how your brain knows it’s go-time!

Article by Michelle Callaghan, graduate assistant on the Communication and Service Promotion team. She is currently pursuing her MA in English at Villanova University.