As midterm season has kicked up over the past few weeks, we enter the grind-set of the spring semester. It’s time for the burning of the midnight oil, so we grab our emotional support stuffed animals, snacks and drinks (caffeine is not advised, but sometimes necessary), and the work never ends. The same thing that makes life interesting—learning cool, new material in our classes—becomes muddled with the expectation of countless hours in front of a computer screen, trying to go over that one last learning objective.

Then, the long-dreaded exam season starts up again, and it’s a fight to be prepared because you can never fully expect what content will actually show up on the test. Once the test is over, maybe you’re relieved or terrified about the Canvas notification that will inevitably appear days later. Life is fine for a day or two, but then it is rinse and repeat.

Staying busy is comforting, but as time goes on, there’s a chance that one may think: “I wish I could get to the part when this stressful thing is over.”

It’s natural to look forward to the moment when something stressful is out of your life. Stress was a survival instinct, the drive that allowed us to run away from tigers and their intent to hunt us for dinner. Now, these tigers have morphed into exams, our big assignments or simply that one anxiety-inducing email that you know you need to send. It’s natural to feel relief when our tigers flee temporarily. We know they will get replaced with another one, but for a brief moment, it does feel better when we complete something stressful.

The problem arises when we spend too much time looking forward to this moment of relief. The desire to be stress-free becomes a yearning for a singular point of time, to the point that we wish away the time that we spent to get to this happy, relieving moment.

How many times have we looked forward to something in the future with no regard for the present? Counting down the days, looking straight ahead with little attention placed on what is happening in the moment. In the excitement of what is to come, or in the stress of the journey to get there, we forget to enjoy the small moments that appear during this journey.

Take, for example, that one difficult midterm that seemingly seals your fate in about a week. There is so much that could be missed in that one week of studying in a sleep-deprived haze, punctuated with dread. Maybe your friends want to grab a meal at the closest dining hall, or there’s a club event you would have otherwise gone to. Maybe you choose to do all of these things regardless, but your mind is somewhere else, computing your next plan of attack on the practice problems or how many flashcards you can make before it’s time to sleep.

A week is seven days, which is also 168 hours, 10080 minutes and 604800 seconds. What becomes of the time when we spend it distracted, stressed or waiting for something else? When we think back to this time several months or years in the future, will we remember anything more than the stress, the crash outs and the weariness?

And, if that’s all we remember, did we really use that time well?

Well, yes, we got things done. The work was finished, the test went well and everything was completed to the best of our abilities. But we weren’t really there, were we? I would argue that by not being present, some of that time did indeed get wasted despite the productivity.

Is it possible to always be present, to forsake productivity for living in the moment? No, of course not. I don’t mean to support procrastination. Living your life cannot be the reason that we fall behind in our classes. But it’s also important not to get too caught up in work, hyper-focused on the next deadline or exam date. If we keep mentally jumping past each thing that makes us stressed, hoping for a moment of relief, we lose all of that time.

Even as our perception of time changes, time will continue to be linear. Every moment is experienced, processed and catalogued, and then we never get that moment back. The best that we have is our memories, so it’s important to have those memories to reminisce on. Memories of life beyond the work, beyond the stress and invisible tigers that will chase us no matter how fast we run. So, why not have a little fun as time goes on? It is possible to stay serious about our goals and also have some fun on the way there.

So, don’t be scared to lure the tiger into a cage for a little while.