It's the third week of the spring semester. You already likely have most of your classes down and are currently finding the groove you need to get into so you can take this semester on, right? No? I thought not. If you're anything like me, you're going into the third week of the semester already struggling. Getting out of bed already feels like you're Luke Skywalker when he went into the Cave of Evil on Dagobah in "The Empire Strikes Back." It's a huge struggle that you have to overcome in order to successfully start your day and continue on with your life.
Here is the typical day of a college student during the Week Three Struggle that many of us find ourselves in.
1. You literally have to roll out of bed to get up.
Getting out of bed is hard enough, much less actually standing up to get out. The struggle is so great that you can't even sit up on your bed in order to properly get out. Nope, you have to roll off of the bed and onto the floor. It probably hurts a lot more if you're at the top a bunk, though.
2. You stand in the shower for roughly 10 minutes before actually showering.
You need at least 10 minutes of just standing under the water to even begin to wake up. But be careful, it's easy to fall back asleep as the soothing water goes over your head.
3. You strongly dislike the thought of leaving your apartment.
You know you need to go to class and work, but the thought just haunts you. You'd rather climb back into your bed for a little while longer and just sleep. Class just seems so exhausting.
4. You sometimes have to crawl out of pure exhaustion.
At this point, you can begin to be physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Even walking seems like a difficult task. At least crawling gives your legs a break since you'll be needing those all day.
5. You sometimes fall asleep in class.
No matter how interesting and important the lecture can be, sometimes you just want to put your head down and rest for a while longer. Don't worry, no one will judge you... that much.
6. When you're awake in class, you barely comprehend what's actually being taught.
All you see in front of you is a bunch of words and numbers flying across the projector screen. You write them down in your notes, but you likely don't comprehend what you're being taught whatsoever. Hopefully your notes will be useful later.
7. When talking to a friend, it's difficult to not fall down and sleep right there.
You love your friends, but the floor that you are standing on looks so comfortable. You just have the want to fall face first and let your worries go away.
8. You begin taking naps periodically throughout the day.
Naps are extremely important, especially in college. You wish the collegiate system still had time for naps like Kindergarten did. The best thing you can do to ensure your survival for the rest of the semester is take periodic naps. Every 30 minutes count!
9. Going through the day starts to seem monotonous.
This is your third week. While not as long as maybe the fifth week, you're already getting stuck into the monotonous groove that is your life. You've done it for roughly two weeks. Now, it's just going through the motions, and sometimes, that's boring.
10. It's rather difficult to care about a lot of things.
It's not that you don't want to care or that you can't, it's just that you're so emotionally exhausted from everything that it's hard to care about certain things like that paper you have due next week.
11. At the end of the day, you're just glad you made it back to your bed.
Congratulations. You've made it. It's the end of a day full of class, work, people and homework. You're finally home. You eat some food, watch some Netflix, then pass out in your bed. During this early part of the semester, it's very important to get enough sleep. Just make sure you go to bed early enough. In the future, you'll be glad you decided to get that extra hour or so of sleep instead of making that 2 a.m. Donut Man run.
