A friend and I sat in a booth at Kimmel Food Court, silently eating. A sense of stress filled the air. The only noise came from the crack of our Crunchwrap Supremes.

It subtly mocked us.

The friend looked up and confessed, ‘I’ve had Taco Bell three times this week.’

‘It’s OK,’ I answered. ‘This is my fifth consecutive day.’

There is only one way to rationalize our admittedly unhealthy eating habits — it’s midterms week. This week I have 15 exams, seven papers and four projects. And of course, I have yet to start working on them.

While midterms usually mean studying, more studying and a little bit of crying, this week also offers a unique window of opportunity: anything is socially acceptable.

You can step outside social boundaries. Any semblance of a normal routine dissipates, leaving ample room to stretch the rules of what is deemed socially acceptable.

For example, my roommate came home Tuesday to find me huddled on my bed, covered in crumbs with an empty box of Thin Mints at my side. Her knowing stare asked it all: Did you eat that entire box?

Yes. But it’s midterms week.

We exchanged a nod of understanding.

At dinner, another friend vented her stresses and confessed she wore the same pair of sweatpants to class multiple days in a row. Under normal circumstances, we would have laid down the law. If you’re wearing sweatpants, you can’t sit with us.

But, you guessed it, it’s midterms week. Anything goes.

Instead of surrendering to being the hot mess that a week of stress commands, I’m using this as a way to make any borderline behavior OK. In the words of my best friend: ‘I have an exam, so I’m going to skip showering tonight. And skip showering tomorrow morning.’

But this freedom shouldn’t have to end after midterms are over. There is a surefire way to make midterm-week behavior acceptable at all times. Repetition. Anything is OK if you tell yourself: ‘I do it all the time.’

Is it OK if I spray-paint a giant letter E inside a picture frame in my room? Sure, I do it all the time.

Can I illegally download every movie featuring Nicolas Cage? Yeah, it’s fine. I do it all the time.

Dude, should I hand out candy from my van? Totally. I do it all the time.

Just kidding about that last one. That’s never OK.

Like magic, hazy situations suddenly transform into acceptable behavior. We can apply the same free pass for recklessness given to us by midterms to our everyday life. It’s like Christmas for those of us with sketchy behavior patterns.

Last semester, I had various chocolates for three meals in row once: M&M’s as breakfast cereal, a Snickers bar for lunch and a Hershey’s bar for dinner — actually, a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds since I was feeling gourmet. I feel no shame replacing dinner with candy. And you know why? I do it all the time.

We don’t need to change how we act. We just need to change others’ perceptions of our actions. This is a chance to be shameless. A chance to be fearless. It’s a chance to disregard hygiene, eat chocolate for dinner and keep stealing spoons for your collection without any thought of repercussions.

All right, maybe that last one is just for me.

Emmie Martin is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears every other Thursday. If you’re looking for her, she’s probably working on her fourth Crunchwrap this week in Kimmel.Email her at esmart01@syr.edu and follow her on Twitter at @emmiemartin.

Published on March 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm