8 a.m's

I don’t know about you guys, but I think 8 a.m. classes suck- suck real bad, in fact. Now, I don’t complain often but when I do, it’s usually about 8 a.m’s. I never thought I would have to get up at 7 a.m. or earlier ever again after leaving high school. I thought, “I’m gonna be sleepin in till 9, 10 or even noon when I’m at college just to go to two or three classes every day.” Not so much; for this semester I have an 8 a.m. class every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And not only do I have four 8 a.m. classes, but I have 17 credit hours as well including two labs. Going to sleep around two a.m. and waking up at about 7 a.m. on four out of the five school days (8:30 a.m. on Tuesday) and getting about an hour’s nap in somewhere between was not my ideal of a college experience. I would have never thought college would be so harsh. Then again it is freshman year; my brother, who also goes here, told me that that is basically how freshman year is for everybody and that I should just keep pushing on. “Alright,” I said, “I can do this, and I’ll manage to tough it out this semester.”

So I’m sure some of you, or probably all of you have an 8 a.m. wedged in your weekly planner somewhere, and if you’re anything like me your daily routine looks somewhat like this: alarm goes off at 6:50 a.m., still 90% asleep I hit the snooze button and in two seconds I’m 100% back asleep. 7:00 a.m., the buzzer goes off again and I once again slam its snooze, then, halfheartedly make an attempt to rise up with the warmth of my mattress and comforter pulling back down on me. Finally making it off of my loft I scramble around and quietly (while trying not waking my roommate) try to collect my things for the shower. I open the door and am immediately hit in the face by the hall lights, my eyes clinch shut and I duck and shuffle to bathroom only to find out that I have somehow or another forgotten my towel. The shower does a decent job of waking me up or at least making me a bit less pissed. After a quick wash down, I briskly walk down to D2 for a normal breakfast of pancakes, old re-heated bacon, scrambled eggs, Lucky Charms and a small cup of coffee and then I’m off to Calculus 1206 class followed by Physics 2305.

I cannot wait till this kind of day ends, when I can sleep in on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and not worry about falling asleep in class. It’s gonna be great; I’m already beginning to fantasize what it must be like waking up after 8 or 9 or 10 with time to spare before making it across the drill field to the first class of the day. My roommate is a business major and his schedule is about half of what mine is so he gets to sleep in late, take his time getting up, and then attend his geology and psychology classes etc…. I’m in University studies right now but am fixing to be a Mechanical Engineer someday, this entails a lot more work than one would expect so I’m trying to get all of the preliminary classes out of the way as soon as I can, which include Physics, Calculus, vector geometry, English and my least favorite, Chemistry. Having all of these classes in the same time frame is what really blows; I have little to no time to get everything done and I’m almost always studying something or other. What freshman year really comes down to is a lot of busy work and basic understanding. There is always homework to be done: book problems, lab reports and pre-lab questions, weekly blog posts, online quizzes- and always concepts to be memorized. It’s overwhelming at times and sometimes I even start to freak out but I never completely break down, and It’s at this point in time when I wish I would’ve taken AP physics and chemistry in high school; even if I didn’t get credit at least I’d understand it more and have more time to sleep and chill. I would not recommend taking all of these core credits all in the same semester, to any 2010 freshmen.

So here I am with 7 or 8 weeks left in the semester and I seem to be doing alright- besides the extreme lack of sleep and social activity. I attend all of my classes every day, do all of my homework and study what I can until past midnight and later, taking a break every now and then for lunch and dinner, and of course to see how Tim Tebow is recovering from his concussion that happened last week. Keeping focused is the main thing, I think; keeping an eye on my dream and future is what keeps me and probably everyone motivated. Without a dream I wouldn’t be here, no one would be here; come to think of it 8 a.m’s don’t seem so bad, I know it’ll be worth it in 10 years. So I guess I’ll just have to tough it out, all of these 8 a.m’s and busywork; man up and do work towards my… pursuit of happiness? Something like that, all I know is that I’m never taking another 8 a.m. for as long as I live.