There is one thing that I always forget about why it is better to have a job than to be a student. It is the lack of sleep. And the sleep dragon is roaring outside my door, tantalizing me as it dangles the carrot in front of my nose.
The first few nights here I didn’t expect to get much sleep; jet lag, adjusting to a new temperature, excited about everything. But after that all wore off I expected I would be able to sleep well again. Wrong.
My first class starts at 7:30, but I drive with
At school I have half an hour to do emails, download my course notes for the day and do some paperwork. Then classes until 12:30. Then collapse on Nikki’s bed for a 15 minute nap, eat some lunch and do errands and paperwork. Then classes from 1 until 6. Then wait for a ride or just run home and start cooking dinner by 6:45 or 7. Finish dinner and dishes by 8. Talk with my housemates for a few minutes. Have a shower because I’m so hot I can hardly breathe. Start studying by quarter to 9. Study for an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours. Get ready for bed and read my bible. Go to sleep by 11:30. Get up in 5 or 6 hours.
I am slaking the dragon’s thirst with mugs of coffee and diet coke and the 15 minute nap with Nikki and sitting in class trying to tense all my muscles in sequence to keep awake. During one of my 3-hour afternoon classes, Anita (the president of the association of which I’m the secretary) emails me things across the classroom and I read them, type what needs to be done and then email it back to her, all during the boring moments when someone is asking a long complicated question. I know I should be paying attention. But 10.5 hours of mental activity a day after only 5 hours sleep is suicidal. Mental suicide. The dragon will eat me.
Right now I am dreaming of a cold coke and a cool pillow and being able to turn my alarm clock off on the weekend and keep sleeping. It’s kind of a vicious cycle. I have tons of studying to do so I have to stay up late. But because I’m so tired I can’t pay attention in class, so I have more studying to do. I don’t know why I’m taking all this time to write this. I just want my bed.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The sleeping dragon
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1 comment:
may God give you strength Heath. I thought I was going to be tired a lot these days, but surprisingly Jane sleeps almost all night, and the times she wakes, she just feeds then sleeps right away, so I don't really do anything. I haven't read your blog for a while, so I had to read like 1.5 hours to catch up. I read a whole bunch to Leah and we were in stitches.
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