Disillusioned by promises of esteemed faculty, riveting classes and unbridled opportunities, I chose Northwestern as a high school senior. I now realize that young me was foolish — I obviously should have picked the University of Hawaii.

I can truly see it now: the sand between my toes, the salty ocean water in my hair, the flip-flop tan lines on my feet — really, if the one time I went to the beach last spring is any indication, a midterm seems far less daunting when you’re studying on the shores of a body of water. If only I had considered the fact that the first 17 winters I spent in the Chicago suburbs were deplorable, perhaps I would be at a luau right now wearing a sweet lei and drinking from a coconut.

But alas, I was wooed by purple and now toil with the Wildcat masses that seem to have been cursed by Lord Voldemort to have a particularly grueling winter season. And yet, all the complaining we’ve partaken in about the weather these past nine weeks will come to an end soon. The promises of Spring Quarter are on the horizon, and all that’s left is to get through pseudo-Reading Period (thanks, polar vortex) and Finals Week.

Now, I, as a mere mortal, have attempted on many occasions to make time go faster and have unfortunately been unsuccessful each time. Perhaps if I star in my own rom-com, the theme of time travel will come up, and I’ll be able to solve all of my problems (looking at you, Rachel McAdams). That would be pretty groovy, but until then, I turned to Pinterest to solve another one of my conundrums.

I stumbled upon a pin for how to make a countdown calendar and figured that would be just the thing to make this homestretch go by more quickly. I selected this particular pin because it gave me the opportunity to get a little creative a find fun facts to write on the back of each numbered card.

Unfortunately, the pin’s description translates loosely to something about jewelry in Hungarian, and I do not speak Hungarian. So, I improvised a little bit and just tried to model my calendar after the photo.

I began this project by fishing out some of the clothespins I used to make my first ever Pinterest creation. Over the summer, I decided to paint clothespins and buy some fishing line in order to make a clothesline sort of display for pictures in my room. These supplies proved mega useful in making my calendar.

I tapped a piece of an empty cereal box to a banner reading “Spring Break Countdown” and then taped one end of three pieces of fishing line to the back of the cardboard. I then taped the other end of the line to the back of a second piece of cardboard about two feet from the top of my creation. I continued by using clothespins to fasten my countdown cards onto the fishing line.

Then, I took a step back and fantasized about how fab life will be in just a few short days. Hopefully, this calendar will make the end of the quarter go by a little bit quicker, and if not, I guess I’ll start searching on eBay for a Time-Turner for next winter.

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