I have had plenty of advice given to me during my time here at Stanford. Some of it is solicited, some of it obvious and some of it unwanted, but all of it is provided with good intentions. TAs have tried to help me understand what types of questions will be on the exam, girlfriends have helped me pick what shoes to wear and discussions over late night food have provided me with life lessons that I’m starting to live by. Granted, some of the advice isn’t always the best, but every now and then, I receive a piece of advice so wonderful, that I feel the need to shout it from the top of Hoover Tower.

Unfortunately, however, I spent the first year and half of college with no platform to speak from, and I was forced to resort to excited text messages and inspirational Facebook statuses — the ones that everyone hates but ends up pressing the “Like” button on anyway. But lucky for me, the wonderful people over at The Daily have decided to provide me with this column, which gives me the chance to share the wisdom that I’ve been fortunate enough to receive, so here it goes.

As winter quarter wraps up and we begin to prepare for finals, all the stress we’ve been avoiding while basking in the sunshine is slowly beginning to rear its ugly head. People are starting to worry about grades, finals, spring break plans and, if you’re a sophomore, what to major in. Naturally, with all this stress comes the feelings and emotions associated with it, and, like the little Stanford ducks that we are, we do what we do best — we start paddling like crazy and we start freaking out.

My personal freak-out sessions are usually accompanied by cookies (most recently they’ve been Samoas, thanks to the Girl Scouts camped out in White Plaza), brief Netflix breaks and little rant sessions with my best friends. During one of these rant sessions, a friend of mine brought up a great point about how to deal with times like these.

Stress can make it seem like the world around you is about to come crashing down, but it’s important to realize that nothing is actually collapsing. People love to say that everything is going to be okay, but the other day, a friend made me realize something much more accurate — everything already is okay. It’s easy to get caught up in stress and worry about everything that’s difficult in your life. It’s even easier to believe that you’ve fallen prey to circumstance — to think that your classes are too hard, that your problems are too big and that things are too difficult to fix. But the other day, I was reminded that you control your state of mind, not the other way around.

So despite the fact that your brain may be screaming at you and trying to prompt a freak-out session of your own, here’s a reminder that you can always take a moment to breathe and clear your mind. As cheesy as it may sound, just remember that you are in charge of yourself. Sometimes, it’s the obvious advice that is the best.

So happy Dead Week, Stanford, and good luck on finals!

Have any other good advice for Ravali? Send her an email at ravreddy “at” stanford “dot” edu.