What are 5th Week Blues, really? Is it inescapable that there will come a point in the term where we face burnout and exhaustion? Must this be in Week 5? Or do we simply feel it because we hear so often that, by the mid-term period, this is what we are meant to feel?
5th Week Blues are known to Oxford students as the week in which the initial adrenaline of the term wears off, the rush of the last couple of weeks hasn’t hit yet, and the work finally begins to weigh us down. I do think the tiredness we face by Week 5 comes naturally, especially on the realisation that so much work still remains in the term – enough has been done to celebrate, but enough is left to not just pump the brakes. The end is near, yet not quite close enough. This is a common and punishing feeling.
That said, this feeling could appear – and be just as notorious – at any point in the term. Why not 4th Week Blues? At this time, we are not quite halfway through the term, and the burnout begins to manifest. Or even 6th Week Blues? It is over halfway, but somehow not quite in the final stretch. Still, I find that this 5th Week weariness is exacerbated by what we may see from our peers at other universities, or friends and siblings who are still in school. For them, it is currently half-term or reading week, so Instagram or TikTok shows us their relaxation and travel while we wallow in the assignments in front of us. The nature of Oxford only makes this harder; we continue to work tirelessly, with little indication of slowing down.
This makes Week 5 a breeding ground for burnout and ‘blues’. Big events at the start of term have been and gone (Halloween in Michaelmas, or Valentines in Hilary), and the next ones (Christmas in Michaelmas, or Easter in Hilary) still feel like they are an age away. Nonetheless, these very events can help bring on this burnout. Even without the drinking or clubbing each night, the reunion of friends and constant social interaction can be exhausting – especially alongside the reintroduction of such an intense workload.
However, whilst these fun events may help stave off oncoming blues, the infamous nature of Week 5 makes them difficult to defeat. As potentially naive freshers last term, some of my friends and I were convinced that we could beat 5th Week Blues, so made it our mission to go out on numerous occasions throughout the week. We struggled in this, because the clubs we went to were practically empty! On one hand, this showed me that 5th Week Blues weren’t just a myth that the second-years had come up with to scare us, and that it was genuinely hitting people hard. On the other hand, it could be that people who do in fact want to beat their blues don’t go out because they believe no one will be there, compelling people to lean into their burnout. This makes our collective exhaustion all the more difficult to beat – we find ourselves stuck in a never-ending cycle, with lower attendance in lectures, and less Entz events to cheer us up (at least, for those who enjoy them).
Even so, giving it the nickname ‘Welfare Week’ – and the events that come with this – does make things better. I find that the iconic St Anne’s ‘Text-A-Choc’ creates a strong sense of community, by noting that we all feel this way around this point in the term and so, deserve a sweet treat! Thank you, Welfare Reps!
Be that as it may, on hearing whispers about the so-called ‘blues’, and feeling the early stages of a burnout, many of us start to visit home to see family and seek a sense of comfort which balances out fast-paced Oxford life. Yet coming back can feel strange. While it may feel like a relief to sleep in your own bed for the first time in weeks, it can be hard once we realise just how long it is until we get to relive that relief. By constantly discussing being on the home stretch of term, and even starting to make plans for the vac, we trick ourselves into thinking that it is closer than it truly is.
So, the realisation that term is far from over can hit like a ton of bricks. It hurts even more when I realise I have four essays left, and am about to get my Collections back — this term still has much to give, and take. With all this going on, Week 5 provides an outlet for all the pent-up emotions, and almost enables people to save up all their sadness for this week; this week in which it becomes acceptable, university-wide, to let it all out.
In any case, 5th Week blues are an individual experience, and so is how we respond to it: partying hard, welfare events, visiting home, or even just having dinner with a friend. To me, the idea of Oxford students feeling these blues is unquestionably inevitable. There will always come a time in the term when the work piles up, and it all seems a bit too much; however, despite its notoriety, this does not necessarily have to be in Week 5. While it is fitting for 5th Week Blues to have the reputation that they do, meaning the welfare events it entails are well-timed, this burnout is possible in any week.
At Oxford, in particular, students can feel 2nd or 7th Week Blues, just as much as those in 5th Week. This makes the 5th Week Blues both inevitable and avoidable, since the term is what we make of it, and no two people experience it in the same way.