Saturday, December 1, 2012

11.28.12: What a Sinister First Semester...


*I wrote this a couple of days ago but I haven't had to chance to post it because (1) I thought that I'd end up writing a lot more and (2) I have actually, without a doubt, been drowning in my work...I hate, with all of my being, the last couple of weeks of the semester when finals start to roll around. But if any of you are curious, here's how my first semester is wrapping up:

The amount of coffee that was in my body right now was not okay…I could practically feel the caffeine swimming through my veins but at least that meant that I knew that the coffee was working. My professor was talking about something along the lines of grammar and I almost missed her question: “and, at, in…What are those?” I rolled my eyes. Prepositions, people…they are freaking preposition. C’mon.
            “What are those, class?” I rolled my eyes again and heaved an exhausted sigh. Jesus, I was surrounded by idiots.
            “Prepositions…” I breathed. Unfortunately, my teacher heard me. She turned to me with a “thank-you-for-knowing-something” look. Well, I guess that I’m happy to oblique, teacher-lady.
            “Thank you, Miss Hawthorne. Would you mind telling the class what the answer is?” Really? Was she kidding? She was looking at me so hopefully…how could I say no? Fine. I turned in my chair to find 26 half-bored, half-annoyed eyes starring back at me. It’s not like I asked for the attention, people. I tried to mimic their expressions of annoyance and boredom. I blew the non-existent bangs out of my eyes.
            “They’re prepositions.”
            It’s been one hell of a day already. I beat my alarm this morning by an hour and a half. Who does that? Not to mention that I was only running on about four hours of sleep. I tried to go back to bed but to no avail. I had to print all of my papers out at the library anyway. So instead of cuddling back into my blankets, I hauled myself down my bunk bed ladder and dragged my butt to my bathroom. The reflection starring back at me wasn’t one that I recognized. This girl had bags under her eyes and sadness radiated throughout her face like a disease. That wasn’t me. I wrinkled my nose my nose at the reflection. I turned the sink on and started to wash my face. I was concerned. Where was my smile? And then I remembered all the work that I had to do...and the fact that none of it was getting done.
            I felt worn down and mentally exhausted. It was only Wednesday. And Thanksgiving was last week. I shouldn’t be so…what’s the word I was even looking for…unmotivated? I was just always tired. I stared at my agenda and tried to focus on one thing that I could actually accomplish. I kept staring. Five more minutes went by. Nothing was registering. I laid my head on my desk and tried not to cry. Why was I so overwhelmed? All I wanted was my 4.0 so I could move on with my life.
            My phone rang and I rotated my head to try and locate my phone. I checked the caller ID and groaned. It was my brother. I reached my hand out and slid the button to unlock my phone.
            “What?”
            “Well hello to you, too. Whatcha doin right now?” I took a minute to answer because I was trying to find an answer that didn’t sound idiotic…but I really couldn’t find one.
            “Uhm…I’m basically falling asleep on my desk. Why?” I couldn’t feel my body.
            “No reason. Just calling to let you know I got a 100 on my AP chemistry test.” Oh, that’s all?
            “Wow. Good for you. I’m so proud of you, kiddo. Good job.” And there he went again kicking my butt at school. Sorry that I sounded so enthusiastic about it…not. “Why do you sound so depressed?” Well at least he didn’t sugarcoat it.
            “I have a group project, five papers, a book to read, a module exercise, about 15 power points to print, and two Saturday classes to do this week. Do the math.” There was silence on the other end for a minute.
            “So…I’ll just talk to you later then, okay?” I didn’t even have it in me to say goodbye before I hung up my phone.

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