A Little Less Exhaustion Please by Katarina

A Little Less Exhaustion Please by Katarina - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Why is the fire alarm going off in the middle of my history class? I wonder. Then, I wake up to the most annoying alarm on my phone. Groaning, I shove my covers away and stumble off my top bunk, grasping on to my dresser for balance. Counting my fingers, I try to recall how many hours of sleep I got. It takes much too long to get to three fingers. “Why did I stay up so late?” I ask myself. Something must have seemed important at the time.

My new years resolution is to get more rest. I am a good student, earning decent grades and loved my first semester of college, but I was exhausted by the end of it. I love to fill my schedule with lovely friends and activities and always leave time for studying, but I forget to leave time to rest. I get sleep, but not as much as I need, and the busyness takes a toll on me.

When I am exhausted, everything seems like the end of the world. College is already a pretty emotional place with all my new friends and all the drama they bring to life. I do not need my exhaustion magnifying everything. I almost had an emotional breakdown because someone called me bossy one day. I laugh at it now, but at the time I was honestly struggling not to either punch the person or cry or both. An assignment that seems manageable at a decent hour looms large as Mt. Everest late at night and no amount of coffee or chocolate can shrink it back to size when the due date is tomorrow morning. Even the smallest decisions like, "What should I have for dinner?" take enough time for the students behind me in the line to start a riot. Well, my imagination thinks they are yelling at me. In reality, it was probably a mere suggestion to go for the safe option of mac and cheese. If such small things are too much for me when I am tired, I shudder to think of how difficult choosing my major will be.

So, I have decided to set myself a bed time and manage my time around it. Yes, I am almost embarrassed to say it, like I am a six year old again. I feel silly when I go to bed earlier than everyone else. I want to develop relationships, but late night chats may not be the best way to get to know everyone. Some of my friends joke about the stupid things they laugh about late at night and boast of their last minute accomplishments, but I see their red shot eyes and wonder if it is really worth it. Most of the best times I have spent with my friends have not been late at night, or at least not in the early hours of the morning. I would rather spend time with them when I am actually awake anyway, with a good night’s sleep behind me.

Sadly, I am realistic enough to know that I will not always be able to get to bed early, but at least if I am well rested most nights, I will be able to handle reality a little easier. Perhaps the mountains of assignments will seem a little shorter or at least my eyelids will be open enough to see a way through them. If I can at least keep to my resolution most of the time, that alarm will not be nearly so annoying in the morning.