For students all around the world, the day of a big test is one of the most nerve-racking of the entire school year. And when you’re sitting for your university exam in Japan, it’s like the final step of a long journey after months of solo studying, endless reading and many sleepless nights.

The student’s journey to the final exam has now been beautifully captured in a unique two-minute commercial that features the most fitting of canvases: the humble school blackboard. While students around the country have shown us their amazing talent for creating chalk-based works of art on classroom blackboards, this commercial brings chalkboard art to life with a moving animation that will simply blow you away.

Produced for Calorie Mate—a brand of nutritional energy bar that provides dietary support for busy people on the go—this commercial took an incredible 2,632 hours to make and used 6,328 chalkboard art images to tell the story of one high school girl’s energy-sapping year as she works up to taking her university entrance exam. If you’ve ever had the chance to study or teach at a Japanese high school, the moments captured in the chalkboard animation will take you on a trip down a beautiful, cherry-blossom-lined memory lane.

You can see the making-of video here.