I’ve spent the last two weeks studying for a makeup exam for the class I am taking this semester, as I had a less-than-satisfactory score on the first one I took. To study, I’d done all of the things that I should have through the course of the semester: read the chapters, outlined the chapters, made flashcards of the terms….

I’d gotten to the point where no matter how hard I forced it, I couldn’t think of the definition for mercantilism anymore, and I was pretty sure that if I didn’t know what the International Fisher Effect was at this point, I would probably die without being able to define it correctly.

Ultimately, I know that all of this sweat equity will be worth it, but when I’ve read the same paragraph four times, and can still not tell you what it means, I wonder if it wouldn’t have just been easier to rob a bank.