With both final exams and the holiday season upon us, many students are expected to feel a fair amount of stress during the next few weeks.

Although stress cannot be avoided totally, there are ways of handling the stress in order to get through this hectic period.

Kathy Hotelling, director of Counseling and Student Development, said all students feel a different type of stress during this time.

“Some students will have to deal with the pressure of final exams and finding out they are not as far ahead as they thought they were in their classes,” Hotelling said.

“Other students will feel stress because of the holidays. Not all people come from happy homes, which sometimes give them a lot to worry about when they return home again from college,” she said.

Hotelling said a common way for some people to control their stress is by overeating or overdrinking, which she said is “obviously no way to control stress.”

Hotelling said, however, there are many different things people can do to try to control their stress during this hectic time.

“Everyone should take time to relax by themselves and do something other than what is causing the stress,” Hotelling said.

“People should also pace and schedule themselves in order to get everything done,” she said.

Many NIU students have their own personal ways of controlling the stress they will feel during finals week.

Sophomore Elizabeth Trent said she controls her stress by trying to keep a positive attitude during finals.

“I try to keep a positive attitude during finals because inside I know I’m doing the best I can,” Trent said.

Junior John Dietz said he has to take some kind of break while he is studying for his exams so he doesn’t become “stressed out.”

“During my grueling exam schedule, I try and take an hour or so to read a good book,” Dietz said. “This seems to help relax my mind so I can then put my energies back into my studying.”

Sophomore Michelle Carroll said when she does begin to feel that “stressed out feeling, I just blare my radio for a little while and remember to take everything one day at a time.”