Thank God it's almost over.

I know that thought has crossed the minds of some of the kids slaving away at The State News, scrambling to close the books on a semester of stories. Only three more papers.

They're thinking it, too, among the pajama-clad army of bleary-eyed studiers camping out in the Main Library. Three more papers … two exams … one group project … if we can just make it through the week. One last push, and we can skip town for a much-deserved breather.

Some of us won't be coming back. Right about now, I should be pining for my fast-disappearing college days, but all I can think at the moment is, "Get me the hell out of here before the ceiling caves in." You'll have to forgive my lack of sentimentality, but it has been sort of a crummy year: I can't remember a rainier fall, tuning in to watch Drew Stanton and company get humiliated in some excruciating new way each Saturday.

It wasn't any easier to be a Michigander this fall. An ugly governor's race constantly reminded us that our economy is in shambles, we're hemorrhaging jobs, and people and the state have nose-dived to the bottom of the heap in all the wrong categories.

My American pride is hurting, too. A year ago, I still might have chuckled about President Bush's "war on terror," but what seemed to be a minor conflict far away from here is feeling more like a looming crisis all the time.

Please understand if it all leaves me a little anxious. I look to next spring, then summer, then fall, and see nothing but question marks in my future. It's a bit overwhelming, and sometimes it kind of makes my head swim.

Tell me about it, Mark Dantonio might say. Since being named MSU's new football head coach Nov. 27, Dantonio is experiencing what might fairly be described as a mild case of culture shock.

"Right now, I'm a little bit unsure how to get to certain places," he said of his first week on campus. "It's hectic. It's a little bit chaotic."

So how's the highest-profile new guy in town dealing with the pressure? He said he has to "slow the game down" and take one challenge at a time.

The big challenge on his plate is turning around a team that has gained a reputation for self-destructing — both on and off the field. I asked the new coach if the program's history worries him at all.

Dantonio responded that he's already seeing positives. He was happy that when he met with the team for the first time Friday morning at 7 a.m., not a single player was late and not a single player missed class that day. Small steps. One challenge at a time.

"If you can look in the mirror at the end of the day and say, 'I've done everything I can for this program,' then I can deal with the results," he said.

As Dantonio struggles to get acclimated and organized, he might find a sympathetic ear in Mark Meadows. The former East Lansing mayor and newly elected state representative has been averaging 12-hour days, devoting most of his energy to learning the ropes at the Capitol and plugging holes in the state budget.

He's well aware that when Democrats took control of the state House in November's election, it wasn't an affirmation of his party's agenda, but a cry for change in what many voters perceived as a partisan, do-nothing Legislature.

"You have to put the people first, and the politics come second," he said. "I think that's the feeling of everyone I've talked to that was elected on Nov. 7."

Partisan politicking is still stalling progress as representatives work on a replacement for Michigan's Single Business Tax, but Meadows believes there will be more willingness to work together when new legislators take office in January.

"That's what I'm going to preach," he said. "If I can't get things done, you're going to hear me squealing pretty loud."

For the moment, Meadows has to wait and hope that a changing of the guard will lead to more cooperation.

Brandon "Dino" Rhoads is waiting, too. The U.S. Army Specialist — whose "pops," Lt. Col. Jim Rhoads, is an assistant professor in the Army's ROTC Spartan Battalion on campus — has been stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., since June. Dino is expecting his next stop will be Iraq, where he'll likely be deployed next spring or summer. The increasing violence and instability in the Middle East might make most people leery about charging in, but Rhoads is actually excited about the prospect.

"I see it as an opportunity to participate in something most men wouldn't have a chance to," he said.

Rhoads said he's more worried about the heat than snipers or IEDs. As for the larger politics of the war, he said he hasn't given them much thought.

"It's irrelevant," he said. "If I do my job, everything's peachy."

What surprised me about Rhoads' response wasn't the sentiment, but the lack of hesitation. His self-confidence and optimism reminded me of the tone I heard from Meadows and Dantonio.

Maybe I could learn a thing or two from these gentlemen. Give Dantonio a troubled football program, and he's focused not on what went wrong last season, but what went right today. Give Meadows a deeply divided legislature and instead of dwelling on the problems of the present, he looks to the promise of the future. Give Rhoads an unpopular and seemingly unwinnable war and he sees an opportunity to make a difference.

Stepping into any new situation carries a level of risk because an unavoidable element of change is uncertainty. We can always react to that uncertainty with fear, distrust or despair. But we have another choice. Hope.

Bob Darrow, professional writing senior, can be reached at darrowro@msu.edu.