Silly superstitions

So now that my essays have all been handed in (and my teachers are taking their sweet time correcting them!), it is time to relax and enjoy the holidays. Only it isn't for me, because I'm working, starting work on my MA dissertation, and also planning our 3-week trip to the US in September. But still, it's less stressful than writing 16,000 words in three weeks, you'd say.
Not true. With the handing in of essays, the silly superstitions that have established themselves over years of school and university start to set in.
When I was still in secondary school, I always kept the book I would have an exam on the next day on my desk while I was sleeping, I never put it in my bag as I usually did with books I needed the next day. I know some people who actually put their books under their pillows, as if the knowledge would drain into their brain through the pillow. Also, I never ever did the last-minute revision thing that you see so many people do in the hallway right before a big test. I was so afraid that by studying some random small detail, I'd forget something else, probably something big, that I did not look at my books anymore once I left the house. I have no idea if either of these things work, and they seem a bit contradictory now that I look back on them, but there you go.
With essays, this becomes less of an issue, but now other things have crept in. If I have a folder from the teacher I'm handing in to (sometimes they bring spare folders to class, when the pile in their office gets too big), I will always hand in my essays in that same folder. For my Theatre course, I have a blue folder that I used for all 3 of my assignments, taking out the previous one and then putting in the next one as I go along. On some conscious level I know this doesn't affect my grade in anyway, but still I do it...
Another thing is that I cannot return the books I needed for the essay to the library until I have my grade. This is some weird kind of reversed psychology; if I hand in the books, I will need to rewrite, and then I have to pick the books up again, so if I just keep them at home, there won't be any point in having to rewrite, as there is no extra effort involved, so I will pass. Again, pointless, but I know several others who do this.
And then there is the checking of the grade. Ahhh, how much easier must it have been when grades were just posted in lists on paper on actual boards, and people just knew when they were there and could go to that place and check their grade. Now, grades are posted online, and many teachers forget to email their students that the grades are in. So you keep checking the website, but not too often, otherwise you'll somehow annoy or speed up your teacher, who will then definitely fail you, but just often enough so that your grade will be posted when you check (needless to say, it never is, as I've already checked some course websites 10 times without knowing my grade. Also, some teachers just put the essays in their outboxes, which is really mean, because then it may take days for someone to notice that they're there, and then there is a sudden rush of text messages and emails and people practically running to the university to prevent others from seeing their grade before they do... Ah well). This is the same as the 'we cannot leave the house now, I'm waiting for a package to arrive!' situation, which we had last Saturday, when the package does indeed arrive just at that time you are out (I realise this does not matter for your grade, which will still be online, and is more annoying when you have to ring you neighbour's bell 5 times before you finally have your things, but still, it's in the same category).
I have a funny feeling all 3 of my grades will arrive at the same day, namely today (as the teachers have had the whole weekend to check things), which will cut short any adrenaline rushes and stress I have been experiencing over the past week, as I keep remembering things I really wanted to put into an essay but forgot at the time. But that would be good, because then I can return the 15 books that are clogging up my desk to the library, and start on my MA dissertation with a fresh, clean desk. Also, I will be able to go to places where there is no Internet without thinking that the grades will be posted that exact second and all my classmates already know everything and I'm the only one on the planet who does not have her final grade. Also, I will finally able to relax. Which is what the holidays are all about.