A few weeks ago, I was giving a campus tour to a prospective student. While I was showing them around campus, I began cracking jokes to lighten up the mood. The jokes I usually tell often involve little things that I find funny (like how there’s a huge rock in the middle of campus and no one knows how it got here), but today I began to talk about the places where I nap during the day. Part of me thought that besides the usual information one gives, that this was vital information that every prospective college student needs to hear. But really, talking about it began to make me really think about my sleeping habits.
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly thinking about when you’re finally done with your day and can get to bed. But more of this than not, I lack the opportunity to actually reach my bed and get a few Zs. My bed and I sort of danced the tango this year because I was hardly in my room. Naturally this meant that my body had to catch up to me somehow and naps became my favorite thing (next to Netflix and Alpacas) because I could actually function without feeling like a zombie. Some of my fondest memories of this first year aren’t really about activities, jobs, or classes, but of the naps I had—the real college experience, as I say.
Later down the line, it occurred to me that I have a bit of a problem, if not a skill. Because of my inability to be in my room for all my naps, my body has granted me the skill of napping anywhere, anytime. But this also means that my “sleep cycle” (R.I.P.) gets all messed up. So in honor of my fallen circadian rhythm I am ranking my top misadventures on this precious, comfortable campus in hopes that others might find grace in the words: You Are Not Alone.
5. The Campus Library
The library is perhaps the most cliché place to nap in, but here is where I’ve had the most successful naps in a room with no bed or cushion at all. I clearly remember the firs time I thought “Screw this, I’m done” when I was at one of the study rooms. I had become tired of the eight-page research paper that I was birthing and decided to shut the lights off. An hour and a few knocks on the door later, I emerged from my spot in the corner of the room good as new.
Also, the second floor of the campus library is a designated quiet area. This allows it to become a space perfect for studying, crying, and napping. I have experienced some of my best nap experiences here, especially in the BC/BD section, between the books about “Grand Theories of Everyday Lifestyles” and “Death” which sounds about right to me.
4. Student Center Common Area
3. Under a Table in The Science Building
2. In the Green Space Between the Residence Halls
Ah, yes. This is perhaps the strangest of places I have given up on the day and decided it was okay to do so. I remember it was a warmer Friday afternoon in the fall when I was walking back to my dorm exhausted and in need of either coffee or a thousand year sleep. I laid face down on the grass and dreamt about the Alpaca farm I’ll have in the future. I’m sure people took pictures of me, but I couldn’t care less because I was already snoring.
1. Lutheran Memorial Church
Finally, we have my best nap experience—the pews at the campus church. Sometimes I like to walk into the church, sit in a pew, and think about everything I have to do and won’t have time for. I surprisingly make my smartest decisions whilst sitting in these pews. There is also something holy about naps at church, as I have a long history of doing so (don’t tell my pastor back home, please).
Thanks to the naps I take (even the spontaneous ones), I am able to function and navigate my way through college. When the campus is your home, all of it is also your bedroom. And when all of it is your bedroom, everywhere is a perfect place for a nap-venture. So go and nap until you ace those tests and are all that you set out to be.
Just don't wake me up from mine...
