Psychologically, there are five stages of grief and loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The time before an exam at university works surprisingly similar. But you are – of course – not actually dying. Even though some students would probably swear that they are doing exactly that.

The grief-and-loss experience exams can bring is actually something that is whined about quite a lot. Being the procrastinator I am, I did not only started writing this text instead of my exam-summaries (life is all about priorities), I additionally thought about a soundtrack that is going to match the five stages of grief before an exam.

Denial: the beginning, that is going to force you into an all-nighter the night before you have to hand in your paper or write that one big exam, you should have started to study for two weeks ago. Denial is defined by one kind of music and one kind only: the starter-song of your current Netflix-addiction. In my case, we are talking about the Gilmore Girls title song Where You Lead by Carole King. The procrastination songs of my editor at VOX, for example, include the themes from Orange Is The New Black and You’re the Worst. Admit it. We all have them.

Anger: the world is not a fair place and before a due date it can be a very unfair place. For a brief moment of enlightenment you realise that you watched twelve episodes of Gilmore Girls per day instead of cramming knowledge into your head. But self-hatred is not the answer to your problems. In order to move on from this stage very fast, I would recommend listening to a lot of Elton John. Nobody can be angry while listening to Elton John.

Bargaining and Depression: the third and fourth step often occur together. You’re going back and forth between bargaining and depression and depression and bargaining. It feels like the world is ending and you start to reconsider the importance of academic education. If you ever were or still are into the pop-punk/alternative-music from the early 2000s, you should start listening to that. The great thing about My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and co. is, that besides sad lyrics, they additionally have this set-the-world-on-fire-I-will-survive-spirit you need now.

Acceptance: you’re ready to give your destiny in the trustworthy hands of the universe. What is life, if not the sum of our failures? Life is more than university and academics. It is about the moments, not the grades you get. And isn’t the most important thing in life, that we are all healthy? Yes. Next time you should really start studying earlier. But for now, close the day with Freddie Mercury’s vocals in Don’t stop me now. From failing, from passing — that is another story. But at least with good music.

Every two weeks, Antonia will add the songs she writes about to the Spotify playlist below. This way, she creates a soundtrack to her time in Nijmegen. Click left and right for more songs.

Read Antonia Leise's blogs here