Later this semester, around midterm and again during Dead Week and Finals Week, dorm rooms across campus and apartments everywhere will be lit as students burn the midnight oil trying to finish their projects and study for tests. Many of those lights will stay on all through the night. Some students will see their first sunrise because of it. Their eyes will be lifeless and their hair disheveled as they straggle to class. But they will have met their all-nighters with success, beating the clock to the finish line. And for what? At what cost?

Somewhere among this year’s term papers, midterm and final exams, cerebral reading assignments, puzzling homework and burdensome work schedules, students will need to find something to help themselves retain whatever sanity they have managed to hold on to.

Even though it may seem hard to find free time when you don’t feel completely lethargic, working at a hobby — either by yourself or with friends — will, I think, help your mind escape endless apprehension. I try to balance school, work and a healthy amount of sleep and down time. I won’t pretend that I have anything like the most difficult course load or hectic schedule. I certainly don’t.

But every now and then, I feel overwhelmed by it all. Sometimes, I need to take what my friends and I call a Mental Health Day — a day to relax, give myself some time off and generally just kick it.

On such days you might find me reading a book of my own choosing [yes, people still do that]. Or I’ll meet a friend for coffee, call up another friend for chess — or, now that I learned how to play last Saturday, backgammon. Perhaps one of these days I’ll seek out a piano with a rich sound and tickle the ivory as best I can. If you go downtown you might find me sitting by the railroad tracks reading, waiting for trains to pass through — there is nothing quite like the clickety-clack of a train.

On such days, even though I’ve made no progress on my schoolwork, have cleared no appointments from my agenda and generally haven’t made a difference in the world, I feel relieved. A sense of balance seems to be restored to the world around me. In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” And then where would you be?

So I challenge you to take a day off sometime. And if you’re lucky and don’t actually need a free day, spend a Saturday or Sunday watching the sun rise and then working at a hobby you once did, or saw a friend doing. I think you’d be surprised at what you learn you can enjoy. And if you want a chess, backgammon or coffee partner, give me a shout-out. I’m always willing to take a Mental Health Day.