Spring Break is over. I hope you had fun because now is when the real work begins.

But, Kate, I’ve been working hard all semester, in all of my classes with readings and lectures and papers and quizzes and tests.

Oh my.

I know. Trust me, I know. But think of Spring Break as the 7th inning stretch.

Yes, I know that I am mixing my metaphors here. Or I will be very shortly.

The end of the semester is barreling down upon us. Which means the projects that most classes have been working toward for weeks will be due soon.

This makes students panic. Knowing that there is a large amount of work to be done and a suddenly, all at once, finite amount of time to cram the work into.

Don’t panic.

Of the several universal truths from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the most important is DON’T PANIC.

You see if you had read the book, you’d be at least smiling now..

Another universal or, in this case galaxial truth, cheating is not the answer. Just ask Zaphod Beeblebox, the hapless leader and President of the Galaxy. Because 2 heads are not better than 1.

The biggest takeaway from the book is that it is not the answer that matters. Anyone can give you an answer, especially since AI has entered the chat. Anyone and anything can give you AN answer.

It is knowing that the answer is not the right answer is where the true learning begins.

Deep Thought spent several millennia thinking on the meaning of life. Their answer was 42. And it did not expound on what is the meaning of 42. To be clear, the meaning of life and the semester is not to get a 42. By any measure that is a failing grade.

True learning is not knowing the answer to the random question but WHERE and HOW to find the answer. Because that will survive the memory reset that so many students do at the end of the semester.

That is what the professors want you to know.