The last stretch of any semester is always hard, but USF leaves you well-equipped to handle it. ORACLE PHOTO/COLE ABRUZZESE

If you’re counting down the days until this semester ends, you’re not alone.

There’s been one common thread in pretty much every conversation I’ve had since spring break — a lack of motivation.

And I can’t help but agree. Despite my biannual tradition of swearing that this is finally the semester where I’ll stay productive the whole way through, I’ve fallen right back into old habits.

Like always, it’s become more of a struggle than ever to start working on even the simplest assignment until an hour before the due date.

Burnout is defined as exhaustion and a decreased sense of personal accomplishment, particularly with regard to academic work, according to USF Health.

I’ve come to realize that late-semester burnout is very real — but luckily, the USF Tampa campus leaves you more than equipped to handle it.

Related: OPINION: Where you study might matter more than you think 

As an English major, I experience burnout primarily as writer’s block.

I’ll stare at a blank page with innumerable ideas in my mind and try desperately to turn those ideas into words, but I’m unable to get even a single thought onto the page. 

Case in point, it took me a shamefully long amount of time to write that last sentence. 

I can get so tunnel-visioned on finishing my work that I spend hours in my room trying to brute-force it — usually, ending up with zero real progress. 

But when I feel stuck, I like to visit the USF Library. In my experience, simply existing in the company of other people who are also studying is exactly the positive peer pressure I need to power through my work. 

And if I’m ever too distracted by other students’ conversations to focus, I just go to the library’s fifth floor — which is designated as a no-speaking environment — and enjoy the silence there.

Additionally, the library’s second floor is home to the Academic Success Center, which is open Monday through Friday and offers a variety of services dedicated to academic wellness.

Offered services include the Writing Studio and Book-A-Tutor — both of which provide 50-minute personalized sessions with student tutors for papers and STEM classes, respectively. 

Sessions for both services can be booked online through Accudemia.

Savannah Barker is a senior English major who has worked as a Writing Studio tutor for the past two semesters. 

Barker said she’s “definitely” experienced burnout in the past, but found that the Writing Studio can help students whose burnout is preventing them from finishing their papers.

“Writing papers can be really overwhelming when you’re thinking about it […] but coming into the Writing Studio is a great resource to help figure out what you’re going to be writing about,” she said. 

Related: OPINION: The USF Library shows power in silence

And I agree. When you’re struggling to find motivation to write, being forced to simply put any words onto the page can be incredibly freeing.

“I always tell students [to] just write it, and then we can come back to it and polish it up,” Barker said. 

Barker also recommended the Academic Peer Mentors — another ASC resource — for students struggling with burnout.

Academic Peer Mentors are USF students who provide 50-minute individual sessions in topics including time management, organization and motivation, according to their website. 

Appointments can be booked through Accudemia based on mentor availability. 

I did run into technical issues on Accudemia that made booking sessions harder than they needed to be, with available tutoring dates appearing and disappearing at random. 

Still, this is in no way the fault of USF’s talented student tutors like Barker.

If you’re swamped with final essays or exams, the USF Library and its Academic Success Center are definitely worth a visit.

Additionally, USF offers an on-campus Counseling Center that provides “free and confidential” counseling for all registered students, either online or in person at the Student Services building.

The Counseling Center is dedicated to supporting students’ academic wellness and mental health, according to its website.

At the same time, it should be noted that the Counseling Center has a mixed reception. Of its 19 Google reviews, there’s an almost even split between one-star reviews that claim counselors are robotic or ineffective and five-star reviews that state the service has improved their mental health.

A handful of reviews also claim that session availability decreases towards the end of a semester — which is unfortunate, as that’s when many students need the help most.

This range of experiences means there’s a chance you may not get value from the Counseling Center.

But considering that many students have had good experiences — and that sessions are entirely free — the Counseling Center is still worth trying just to see if it works for you.

Hopefully, the Counseling Center, the USF Library and the Academic Success Center can help make the final stretch of this semester that much more manageable. 

And these highlighted resources aren’t the only tools that USF provides for students struggling with late-semester burnout. In fact, the school has an entire webpage that catalogs support systems across all three campuses. 

The lead-up to finals week is always hard, and finding the motivation to push through is usually even harder. But don’t worry. With the right tools, summer break will be here in no time.