Sometimes I feel like I complain a lot. There’s missed deadlines, too many pages to read, and lots of late-late nights spent typing. It’s easy to complain about the stress and lack of sleep when everyone else is barely surviving along with you.

But, even if I complain and complain about it, I don’t think I want to stop anytime soon.

I don’t want to stop reading gross amounts of Toni Morrison every night. I don’t want to stop talking about what makes the world beautiful. I don’t want to stop learning about what’s happening around me and what I can do to make it a little bit better. Tedious 2am homework is still the worst. But, I would rather do tedious 2am homework than the alternative.

We’re stuck in the weirdest situation. Thousands of over-caffeinated students living in the same place, running into each other everyday. We’re doing nothing and everything all at the same time.

Sometimes I sit in a lecture and let the professor’s words and bulleted PowerPoint slides fly over my head. I count down the minutes, plan out my day, and worry about if I’m wasting my time. But, sometimes, I sit in a classroom surrounded by a handful of other people whose words actually make sense.

I change my mind over and over again, thinking of things in completely different ways. These little bursts of aha-moments-- when everything seems to sort of click for one small 70-minute class—these are only happening because I am exactly where I am. Exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Long nights that hurt your eyes, brain, and body seem inevitable. They may come around every once in a while, or maybe more times than not. Feel your feet on the ground, know that that is enough. Move forward, experience the beauty of the unusual, and acknowledge how funny your world at that exact second might be—even if it is 2am on a Tuesday.