We have all been there, and are more than well-versed with the struggle that comes with early morning classes. What once seemed like cakewalk in school now seems like a Herculean task.
What is strange is the fact that, 8:30 a.m. was no problem in school. This makes you wonder, what went wrong along the way, ‘the way’ being the two months between exams and college admissions. Could it be the lack of sleep that was experienced by most during the board exams? Or the stress that came with result anticipation and college admissions? Or some unknown force that overcame everybody postschool?
Many of us may enter college freshfaced and ready to take on the world, with early morning classes being the least our concerns. Upon entry, the excitement of college is replaced by the burden of mediocrity pretty soon; making things like eating meals on time a task, let alone attending classes post 10 a.m. Most people’s first attempt at waking up for an 8 a.m. class fails miserably due to a plethora of reasons, overconfidence being the biggest culprit. You feel selfassured that if you could wake up for school, you can wake up for college. However, some crucial factors are missing in the college setting, namely, mother dearest. You fail to realise that the reason you made it on time was not that you are a responsible and independent student, but because you had someone to shake you off your bed, and force you to get up and get going.
Your first 8 a.m. class in college is a whole different experience in itself. The night before, you open your timetable and look at the neatly demarcated boxes with the brimming excitement of your first lecture. You may even be confident enough to consider not putting an alarm at all, but that is mostly a fluke and never works out. So you set your alarm for exactly 7:30 a.m., not 7:10 then 7:15 then 7:20 and so on, just 7:30. With an overly ambitious alarm set, you turn the lights off. The next morning turns out to be exhaustingly frenzied, owing to the fact that you wake up at 7:40 a.m. Your parents, lacking confidence in your ability to function without them, call you several times, only to encounter a never-ending ring. Congratulations, you have successfully been inducted into the world of frequently missing morning classes!
In the first year of college, you cannot seem to get over the guilt of missing these classes. By second year you feel somewhat ashamed about it, but momentarily. Come the third year of college and now you are a confident, hopeless, indifferent being who even takes pride in missing classes. It is then you reach a sublime level of self acceptance and embrace the glorious character of a true college student worthy of their degree. To all the freshers, welcome to a world where 11 a.m. is the new 8 a.m., and to all the first and second-year veterans, dream on.
Feature Image Credits: Max
Meher Gill