In college, you immediately cringe when you hear someone spew the L-word: Lecture. The thought of even having to take time out of your day to sit in a crowd of hundreds of students for more than an hour as your professor monotonously regurgitates useless information presented in the powerpoint is gruesome, to say the least. Here are your 13 thoughts you have during lecture.
1. It's freezing in here.
You constantly have to bundle up during lectures because, no matter what building you're in, it feels like another Ice Age has begun. You can't even pay attention to your professor because all you can focus on is your body going numb and your eyes stinging with every blink you take.
2. None of this information is going to be useful in the real world.
You often wonder how, after passing classes, graduating college, and starting your career, memorizing the circumference of the Earth or learning the gestation period of elephants will actually come in handy. Most of the information you learn in your classes you'll forget the semester after anyways, but at least you'll always remember that the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.
3. What is the professor even talking about?
You typically spend the entire lecture taking notes on the information your professor presents. In reality, you have no comprehension of the meaning behind the notes you're taking, and the professor sounds like she is speaking in code. Occasionally you'll feel confident that you understand the information and feel like you understand the directions to an assignment, but then you truly analyze your situation and realize that you actually have no idea what you're doing.
4. I feel nothing.
The lecture is completely draining, and you feel like your eyes are consistently bleeding out of their sockets. You often joke to your friends about how you're dead inside, but let's face it: You really could care less about this entire lecture. You have no motivation to pay attention, and if you're unfortunate enough to have an 8 a.m. lecture, people should forget about even approaching you.
5. There are too many people here. I hate people.
When you're sitting in a lecture of two-hundred, three-hundred, or even four hundred people, the lecture can feel pretty overwhelming. You feel like if you didn't even attend the lecture, no one would actually notice because you're just a face in a sea of students staring up at your professor. You can't believe that they cram hundreds of students in often small lecture halls and not be charged with fire hazards all the time. You usually don't have a problem with people, but lecture tests your patience with social situations and interactions.
6. Thank god, the professor finally told those girls to stop talking.
You've undoubtedly sat in a lecture with rude, annoying people chatting loudly as you're already trying your hardest to focus on the agonizing lecture material. When you're finally blessed with the professor calling the group of people out, you low-key feel a special bond with your professor at that moment. Unless you're the one who's talking. Then you're out for blood.
7. I hope I don't fall asleep in lecture. Again.
You experience your fifth yawn of the morning, and your eyelids feel heavy and swollen. Your professor's monotonous voice poorly explaining the titration curve of amino acids fades into the background of your thoughts. You lean back in your seat, blink for a few seconds too long, and fall into an inevitable snooze during lecture. Hopefully, you aren't a loud snorer, because everyone sitting around you is already either jealous of how easily you were able to fall asleep or judging you for being so undeniably weak. Either way, you know you're going to be totally clueless writing that paper later, so at least take advantage of this innocent opportunity while you can.
8. I'm dropping out of college.
When your professor drops two papers, a quiz, three assignments, and a thesis on you at the end of the lecture, you feel like giving up. Not to mention, all of these responsibilities are due tomorrow, and you already have piles of assignments to do tonight from other classes. You really don't know how your life can get any worse than it already is, yet your professor somehow manages to achieve the impossible.
9. My professor totally just ignored my raised hand.
When your professor asks if anyone has any question during the lecture, and you don't even know where to begin or which question to ask first, you know you're in trouble. You pluck up the courage to raise your hand, only to experience your professor basically skipping over you and pretending that you don't exist. Why ask if we have any questions if you're not willing to answer them? Check yourself.
10. I wonder what my friends' plans are for tonight.
During the lecture, your minds always seems to wander and think about anything but the lecture material. Maybe you're thinking about what you're going to grab for lunch after the lecture, or maybe you're debating talking to your crush tonight. You create multiple scenarios in your head as to what could possibly go wrong or what your friends would think until you're forty-five minutes deep into lecture and a puddle of drool starts to form on the tile floor below. Don't get caught!
11. I hope the professor explains this concept again before moving on.
If you're unlucky enough to have a professor that is difficult to understand, speeds through the lecture material, or doesn't fully explain the material he's presenting, I am honestly sorry for you. We all have been in the situation where we don't know what the professor is talking about, but instead of listening to our concerns and rephrasing his explanations or giving us clear examples of the material at hand, he brushes it off as if we clearly should've known the material presented to us only seconds earlier. We are just students trying to learn unthinkable concepts; we are only human.
12. I'm not ready for the lecture today, but let's just get this over with.
I can confidently say that this is your very first thought just before or during lecture 99 percent of the time. You honestly don't feel like waking up and going to lecture, but you're already here, so might as well just sit here and get this lecture over with. You have better things to do with your time, like sleeping, than sit in a seventy-five-minute lecture, but you know skipping lecture won't really help yourself either.
13. Nobody care's about my opinion here.
Discussion-based lectures are always pretty fickle, because your professor wants you to contribute your ideas and opinions to the discussion, yet you are 100 percent judged on your opinion or told your views are wrong by your professor, other students, or even both. You feel like saving yourself the effort and embarrassment by not voicing your opinion because nobody really cares what you have to say, until you remember you receive a participation grade. Time to weigh your options.
