Take your years at Uni seriously but always take time to chill

By Roveiza Irfan
2005-06 Gargoyle Co-Editor-in-Chief
Posted Monday, June 26, 2006, The OG, opinions

Midway through my senior year, after four and a half years of being at Uni, I finally came to the startling realization that I absolutely hated school. Hated it. Unbashedly, unflinchingly, exuberantly, I hated school.

I didn't always hate it, I actually loved it. For four and a half years I had no problem, but second semester senior year was when the ligament snapped. (Literally, but that was a metaphor.)

What also added to this epiphany was when I realized my 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. sleep cycle was a distant memory. It wasn't that I had too much homework to keep me up, but stress prevented me from having the ability to just go to sleep. Typically I got seven hours of sleep, one hour short of what is generally recommended. I've calculated that over the course of a school year, I lost 180 hours. By the end of my junior year, that's 720 hours.

At some point this deficit had to be made up somehow. As a Uni student, I didn't make it up during the day like some of my other classmates. I didn't really make it up over the weekend, as I am far too obsessive to give up my valuable daytime hours.

So I decided to let it all out during the time of every Uni student's academic life when serenity and enlightenment are achieved and everything is put into perspective. When the fruits of our many labors are brought to bear and the crowning achievements of our intellectual trials and toils are made visible. A time when I could reflect on my years at school, when I saw what the complete picture, from start to finish, of what a Uni student is.

To put it bluntly, I totally slacked off second semester with a wicked case of senioritis.

Gone were the days of getting my homework done before 7 p.m. and looking at the syllabus to get the week's work out of the way. Insert days of getting home at 7 p.m. after wasting time around town with my classmates and then eating a drawn-out dinner, followed by AIM, television, and a hot shower. Free periods? Not for homework. These were the days when I did my calculus in the last half hour of my last of three free periods in a day.

At the beginning of the semester, my sleep deficit was already at more than 810 hours. I could sleep through every day and still need more than a week's worth of rest. But despite my complete lack of devotion to schoolwork, I came to grips with the fact that I would never break even, sleepwise. It may well be a hidden cost of attending this school, along with other such costs.

The strange thing about this, though, is that I'm not the only one this happens to. In fact, this happens to everyone as far as I can tell. At Uni, too much importance is given to what in the grand scheme of the universe are tiny details.

I'm completely thankful for the education I received at Uni and the amazing teachers whose concern for their students extended beyond the classroom. And I have been honored to be amidst such a talented graduating class. But sometimes I wish that I had learned to relax a few years earlier.

So those of you with time left, take a step back and see how what you're doing fits into the grand scheme of things, and act accordingly. See if you can even remember what you were stressing about one year ago today.