My son came home from school today with his cap and gown for high school graduation. Between now and then, however, he will have to traverse "finals," as will students around the country. The preparation for this last journey through the classroom includes late hours, frequent "consultations" (aka, breaks) with friends, and time spent hunched over open books and notebooks.
To encourage these many scholars, even 11th-hour scholars, here's a quote I saw on a poster on a college campus (to my knowledge, author is unknown):
"The bitterness of studying is preferable to the bitterness of ignorance."
This is fairly good advice even for those of us whose last final is behind (or way behind) us.