Let me set up the situation for you.

It’s the end of a long day of classes. You just had two tests and you’re mentally exhausted because you stayed up late last night studying. You just got back from stuffing yourself at the buffet in the dining hall, and you don’t feel like being social tonight. You decide it’s time for bed. You get really excited about the idea of going to sleep. Sleep, after all, is your most beloved pastime. You pull on your cozy pajamas and if you’re feeling responsible you even wander down the hall to the community bathroom to brush your teeth.

Finally, you return to your room and are ready to climb into bed. But, the problem is that you can’t just fling yourself onto your bed and crash right then and there. First, you have to get to your bed. And that requires a ladder.

This is the moment when you miss home the most. You miss your bed that you could lay on at your leisure without having to climb Mount Everest to get into it.

You can only keep your eyes away from your bed for so long. You turn to face it. You spend some moments doing deep-breathing exercises and you mentally prepare yourself for the task at hand. You know the reward of sleep is worth the struggle.

But you’re still standing there in the middle of the room staring at your bed. You even contemplate going out and being social because that honestly sounds like a better alternative than the difficulty of the task set before you. But you already have your pajamas on so you step towards your bed. You stare at the ladder and know you need to climb up as fast as possible to limit the pressure on your feet.

Suddenly you find the motivation and you place one foot on the bottom rung and you slowly start to climb and you eventually reach the top rung and your neck is bent at an odd angle so you don’t bump your head and you swing your legs over the top of the ladder and fall onto your beautiful bed in victory and breathe a sigh of relief.

You lay on your bed and smile. You did it! Yay! You feel so accomplished. You really do deserve an award. This is also the time you roll over and realize you forgot to turn the light off and want to cry. So in case you want two dramatic experiences in one day, the next time you have to climb into a lofted bed make sure you bring a sleeping mask with you to block out the light you’ve probably left on.