Your alarm blares for your 8 a.m. class, pulling you out of your peaceful slumber. You reach over and hit snooze. Due to trying to finish a paper the night before, you only had a few hours of sleep and you’re wondering how you are going to make it through the day. Then, the ever popular question pops into your head. Should I skip class?

If you want a short answer, no. If you want an honest answer, my belief is that skipping class is worth it, but only sometimes.

It’s one of those things that you just have to use common sense and consider all the contributing factors. Personally, I skip class, but I do so in a way that doesn’t hurt my academics in the long run. My skipping is strategic and planned. If a professor has outlined in their syllabus that a student cannot miss any days without a doctor’s note before it affects their grade, then it makes sense not to ever skip that class.

However, if you are allowed three missed absences per semester before your grade begins to drop then use those days as best as you can. Skip on a day where you have a huge paper due and that extra hour will give you the time you need to edit. Skip on a day where you stayed up too late the night before and you just really really need to take a nap. Skip on a day where you usually don’t have any time to grab lunch and treat yourself to greasy fast food. Skip on a day where things just haven’t been going your way and you need a break. Use your three (or however many) pre-allowed skips to take care of yourself, to make things easier on yourself.

Let’s face it, college is incredibly stressful and tiring and many of us just don’t have the time to consider our personal and emotional well-being. I’ve been taking 18 credit hours pretty much every semester my entire college career and I’m positive many of you share a similar workload. Sometimes with all my classes, I just need to skip one day for my personal sanity. I don’t want to be paying this much money to come out of college exhausted and bitter toward the world.

Burnout is a real possibility and something all college kids need to be aware of. Your health and well-being are more important in the long run than getting notes during one lecture. Those notes of which you can just copy from a friend later.

The expectations for college students are high, but not quite as high as the “real world.” So skip a class for the only reason that you won’t be able to do so again once you’re in your post college career. Maybe, “do it because you can,” isn’t the best reasoning, but sometimes caution needs to be thrown to the wind to make the most of life.

Now, please don’t take my words out of context and start skipping every class you have in the name of mental wellness. That would be a waste of college tuition because in the end we are all here for an education. However, do take little moments for yourself, and if you have to skip class every once in a while to enjoy your day, then I say go for it.