Finals

Finals are not unlike medicine. Nobody likes them, but in the taking they do each of us some much-needed good. To the student they normally mean merely more time spent in digging up knowledge about a given subject. To the faculty man, thinking up a new set of questions presents something of difficulty, and correcting blue books is a thankless task at best.

This year the finals have taken on a new aspect. We are going into them with more of an interest because of the war. That blue book in chemistry means more than simply poring over a mass of material. We are not thinking quite so much about the grades, but are rather desirous of getting more out of the course itself, because we realize that in this respect we are to be of more value to our country. It is not materially different from the idea that makes a man try his best to please his commanding officer, partly from a sense of duty and partly in a desire to be worthy of that officer's respect. Just now our professors should be our commanding officers.

If we keep this idea of doing our duty ever present in our mind, the finals will have taken on something of a prospect of joyousness. We will be testing our own strength. After all, finals are only the preceding trials to the great outside world. --Michigan Daily.