So, I recognize that I may be getting older. I’ll be hitting the big 2-0 in a few months. But naively I like to think that I am capable of keeping up with all the hot lingo. Right? Wrong. It’s not so much about keeping up with hot new words as everybody nowadays is just making up new words.

I was walking back home with a friend and he asked me “How are your middies going?”

Middies? What in the world are middies you might ask? That’s what I was thinking. My friend gently enlightened me that “middies” is the less intimidating euphemism he uses for the big dreaded…dun dun dun – midterms.

Midterms. They’re here upon us. Everyone seems to be stressed, deactivating Facebook accounts, not returning texts or emails, because, as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, we’ve all got our “nose stuck in a book”. I’ve had two late nighters, loads of impromptu nap times etc.

I’m kind of intrigued with this idea of changing the names of things to make them sound so less daunting than they actually are. I guess it’s a new kind of placebo. You’re not actually doing anything to make it easier, but you think it’s not as bad.

Talking about placebos, who knew spectacles could be placebos too? Spectacles, like those big frames with plastic in them that help you see. Oh, glasses? Is that what you call them now? They don’t even have glass anymore. Well, a different friend of mine has non-prescription glasses that he uses to get him into “study mode”. When it’s time to study – the glasses come out. What a neat idea? I guess this has to do with the whole concept of looking the part, acting the part and you eventually turn practice into habit.

Whatever works my friends, whatever works. Good luck with midterms! On to phase 2…