Break out the coffee mugs, pens, laptops, school books and a healthy amount of unchecked aggression because finals week looms just a few days down the road for all of us.

But remember guys, truly, it is only finals week. Count to 10 before ripping some stranger a new one because they brushed into you in the hallway. In times like this it is very helpful to keep a level head. I know that's a challenge but believe me—it helps.

Take this example: In the Brew Bayou, someone spills coffee on your 15-page history paper. You had just printed it out. You have more papers due tomorrow and this nearly puts you over the edge.

You can ask politely for some cash to go reprint the paper. This will take 15 minutes out of your day, nothing more. You could also get up and start shaking the idiot who spilled his coffee on your paper. Then slap him silly and shout things so profane Sam Kinison would blush.

A 15-minute delay becomes a trip to the Department of Public Safety office where you find yourself saying, "No, officer, I do not have a prior history of assault," and, "Yes, officer, I think anger management might be a wonderful thing to try."

That's all a little dramatic but you get my point. Right now, we are all a little stressed out. Everybody has everything going on at the same time and it is incredibly hectic. Verbally and physically abusing each other won't help.

I am not asking for an all-out love fest here. I am not naïve enough to think that we are all capable of singing Kumbaya around a camp fire at the moment. Honestly, I'd be more freaked out if that happened than if we torched the Alumni Memorial Union.

But let's try to consider others this week. The "so and so" who bumps in to you tomorrow is in a hurry to print her paper that is due in an hour. The "such and such" who doesn't strike up a conversation at work because is busy with exams and presentations.

I'm holding myself to this thing too. I am the least patient human being in the world and one of the most tactless as well. So I don't want to sound like this is a soap box speech about how mean we all are and how sad that is.

It's just that right now the last thing we need to do is go ten rounds with the dude from Jimmy John's when he brings Baked Lays instead of regular Lays. We need to refocus some of our stress into positive energy.

Just find whatever it is that alleviates stress and use it to channel your aggression when those fits of 15-page paper rage start popping up.

We're all human. You, me, even the jerks we'll cross in the next two weeks. The important thing is for all of us to keep our cool down the stretch. In the words of Samuel Jackson, "We're gonna be like three little Fonzies, and what is Fonzy? He's cool."

Right now that's the way to be, like the Fonz. Or at least it's a good model to follow. It's better than taking an anger management course.