February 14, 2003
Four Year Jet Lag
Posted by Jess in
Geek Humor
As a college freshman, during registration I had last pick of the classes I wanted. Stuck with the 8 AM class schedule, I counted the years until I could look forward to getting first pick of the later classes. In between classes, we all jealously watched the upperclassmen head to the registration hall, knowing we had weeks to wait until it was our turn… just long enough to be eligible for the bottom of the barrel.
Not to say that I went to bed early because of this. I went to bed late, after having fun the night earlier. I was just much more tired than the upperclassmen, not getting the privilege of getting to sleep later that morning. When I was in high school, I remember touring the dorms on Saturday afternoon. They were deserted. Quiet halls, it appeared they were empty, as if all the students had gone home that weekend. “Empty? Goodness no,” the tour guide replied when she was questioned about it. “They’re still asleep.”
The semesters passed, and finally it was my turn to get the later classes. I walked out of the registration hall, triumphant at my pick - 11 AM, 12 and 1 PM. That night, I went out just so I could enjoy the fact that I did not have to get up early the next morning. And the next night. And the next. I went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Weekends weren’t really weekends anymore. It was nothing to appreciate. It was just like the week!
All good things do come to an end. The years progressed and the classes became more specialized (and required!). No matter how early I got to register, the odds were against me: sooner or later I’d need to take a class that was only available at the crack of dawn. Twenty years old and still I considered 9 AM the crack of dawn. Oh, I had a lot to learn about the working world, but I wasn’t there yet. “Waking world” was more like it. I didn’t question why I never saw the working class on the road with me on the way to school. They had already been in their offices for a good hour and a half already. The morning show jocks on the radio were like Snufalupagus on Sesame Street. I always heard people talk about them, but by the time I was up to turn on the radio, they were long gone. But I digress. This new, hateful, pesty 9 AM class ruined my chi. It was jet lag that I’ve never known before. At the end of the day, my body was fatigued from walking around campus, while my mind was just getting ready to go.
How quickly the mind forgets! It was only a few years ago that I was up at 8 o’clock looking wistfully at the upperclassmen who magically seemed to materialize out of nowhere on campus hours later. Here I was now, a little older, a little wiser, pining for those days where my body had a sense of normality.
Winter break was the worst. I considered it a little teaser of what was to come once I graduated. As all students nearing graduation, semester breaks weren’t as fun anymore, as working was now required if you planned on keeping the roof over your head until the next semester started. It was then that I realized why work was actually called work. Actually, work was just getting out of bed on time! I’d been up for 5 minutes and I already felt like I had put in a full day. I learned a new appreciation for this mysterious little black drink that these working class homo-sapiens called “coffee”. By the end of the winter break, I was a card-carrying member of the Juan Valdez fan club.
Now that I have been in the working world for a few years, I am totally over my jet lag. Weekends are something to look forward to, not just another day. Coffee is still my savior, but it’s not because I absolutely need it to function. Rather it’s now part of my start-the-day ritual, which, believe it or not, includes listening to the morning show on the radio.
From Pomp To Circumstance, chapter 2
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