I’m William Repetto, a second-year graduate student at Villanova University. This is the “‘Cat in the Stacks” column. I’m your ‘cat. I’ll be posting about college life, about learning and growing here at Villanova, and, of course, about the Falvey Memorial Library’s role.

I have three Cats in the Stackses… or however you would say that… to bring you during my time here as a graduate assistant at Falvey. (I get choked up just typing that!) It’s been a real pleasure for me, as I contemplate my next step in life, to reflect and think not only of my time as ’Cat in the Stacks but also to look at how my predecessor Michelle Callaghan used her final posts.

Enough sappy stuff, though. We have vacation on the horizon!

Using the search terms “’Cat in the Stacks” and “Finals,” I came across a post that Callaghan shared that I’d like to reproduce for you here; she titled it “Visualizing Success:”

Visualize success with me.

My mind is clear. When I breathe, I am breathing fully. I am still.

I am motivated. I am intelligent. I am prepared.

I trust in the work I’ve done this semester. I have mastered this knowledge, and I can show how.

I am stressed, but I accept that stress—and I am blessed to be stressed, to be here, to have made it to the end of another semester.

I know that there is life beyond finals. There will be a day—and that day is very soon—when finals are over. Until that day, I am focused, I am alert, and I am ready to finish strong.

I really appreciate posts like this because I think we sometimes miss the small daily ways that we can mitigate stress. Simple reminders like “I have mastered this knowledge” and “I am prepared” can go a long way in helping us breathe easier – even for me as I prepare to defend my master’s thesis!

PATW author, Hunter Houtzer, always looks to nature to relax. She probably picked these from Longwood Garden!

I almost corrected Callaghan’s line “I am blessed to be stressed,” thinking she meant “too blessed to be stressed.” I noticed in rereading, however, that she really did mean “blessed to be stressed.” As students, it’s easy to forget the long-term payoff of our work while we’re in the day-to-day trenches of a college workload. We are truly blessed though to be here at Villanova and, moreover, to be here as a community.

Speaking of our great community here, as you use these simple lines to decompress, also think about joining the library community for our Crunchtime event this Thursday!

Article by William Repetto, a graduate assistant in the Communication and Marketing Dept. at the Falvey Memorial Library. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University. (Graphics courtesy of Bitmoji, and Hunter and I spending hours perfecting our representations!)