Students took a mental break today during Assembly in order to remember to have gratitude and to destress as the crunch of finals closes in.

Annie Egan, Convent Director of Student Support, showed a video of Louie Schwartzberg’s TEDx Talk Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. The video focused on opening one’s eyes to the beauty in nature and to be thankful for the good in life.

“I think it’s cool that we took a moment to relax in assembly because with finals, it’s just really stressful right now,” freshman Lila Horwitz said. “It was a good way to calm me down and realize that it’s all going to be okay.”

Many students are overwhelmed during finals week, so Egan intentionally created this time for students to take a moment to recenter themselves.

“I thought the message of the video was to take a step back and look at everything around you,” sophomore Delaney Tobin said. “That actually really helped me to focus on other things besides finals and take a breath.”

Along with the video, students were given pieces of paper and told to write down what they are thankful for, whether it was obvious or the little things in life that make our day a little better.

“Friday felt pretty heavy around here, and it just felt like people needed a bit of a release,” Egan said. “If you take five minutes of write down a note of gratitude in your life, you feel better.”

This exercise gives students a reminder to look beyond their schoolwork and see everything they are grateful for.

“When you’ve gone through a long period of time where you’re just stressed,” Horwitz said, “you just need that one moment to destress.”