Today was not such a good day for me, and worst of all, I have no one to blame but myself. It’s a sobering thought when you have to climb a mountain of suffering alone, and today I had three: academic, social and personal.
I woke up, post-snooze button mashing, at 7:48a.m., and only by a miracle did I get to class on time from my room on the far side of campus. My first scheduled discuss-a-thon was theology with Dr. Yeager, and oh man, did I struggle to stay awake, attentive and engaged.
Then came organic chemistry where my mind imploded with the multiple reactions that a particular molecule could go through with so very few other reactants. I thought everything was rigid in chemistry, or so I did before appreciating college level chemistry classes. Still reeling from this class, I plopped into my seat in my physiology class… wait… (**heart races**) WHAT?!… As it so happened I COMPLETELY forgot about my physiology test and had only five seconds to cram for it. The very near future went from dim to bleak.
Finally, at lunch, things started to turn around. A full belly later and I began to see sanity on the horizon of my day. Here’s where things actually started to get good: history with Dr. Thornton has always been interesting, and our class on the critical views of the impacts of WWI on the modern world was a step up from the last. I had my homework done even though I couldn’t remember when it was I did it. My best guess would be during the File House weekly Mario Kart 64 tournament. And yes, it was absolutely epic!
I even got offered cookies! Sue Tilley, who works in the Career Center helping students get internships, prepare resumes and not looking stupid at job interviews, made the kindest offer — a big mistake — of offering me some heavenly peanut-butter-chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies. These put a smile of my face for a long time, and I was still smiling and munching two hours later, too.
Also, my efforts at introducing culturally diverse music on campus has made some nice headway. I received my backlight in the mail today, and I don’t have that much longer till the first File House dance party!
To be honest, today was a bit of a struggle, but not a REAL one by a long shot. It was difficult to stay awake in class not out of boredom, but out of exhaustion. I went to bed indecently late yesterday simply because I wasn’t tired and paid the price for it. Even though it was tough, talking about God and Evil in theological respects can wake a man, no matter how tired.
My test wasn’t as big of a mountain as I expected, either. I smashed that anthill with no second thoughts. Turns out I had prepared for it more effectively than I thought I had, which brings me to my biggest problem: self discipline and self control. I need to sleep earlier; I need to keep a more up-to-date personal academic calendar that agrees with my personal and social commitments, as well.
Time management is the biggest mountain that college students climb, and I am no different. I was lucky to have put in some preparation before today; it would have been a very different story had I not. I will have to accomplish this task of self-improvement alone, which I dread, but at least I get to do it in the best of environments, which I love.
