At the end of last semester, at 2:35 pm, I made some decisions. Fueled by a dangerous combination of five finals due in three days and two Apple Crisp Bloom energy drinks, apparently a 7:45 lecture on Monday was something I deemed manageable for future me.
Class from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day? Sign me up! Not a single break longer than 15 minutes? Yes please! This was the toxic mindset I had as I piled anything and everything into my Spring 2026 cart in the “course search and enroll” tab of My UW.
And now, as I knew it inevitably would, the time has come to actually attend these classes. I sat in bed this morning fantasizing about the person I thought I’d magically become this semester. The schedule looked great on paper. Color-coded. Balanced. Academic. I thought this schedule would prevent me from leaving assignments until the last minute, since all my classes are back-to-back. In reality, it just condensed that last minute into the ten minutes between classes.
As I reached to snooze my alarm for the fifth time this morning, I thought about all the free time I’d waved goodbye to with this unethical schedule I had created for myself. Do I now have to watch “Heated Rivalry” in 15 minute increments on my walk to Van Hise? Do I really have to watch Shane Hollander get undressed in 2x speed?
A single tear rolled down my eye as I began to accept my new reality. A brief thought slipped through, whispering “Maybe all the 8 a.m. lectures will make you productive this semester.” I pushed it out immediately, and trekked to my first class.
And so the dreaded schedule began. Syllabi are passed out like warnings. Professors casually mention “light reading” that spans fifty pages. The girl next to you is playing 2048 and just lost at 1099.
The schedule is real. It’s here. And it’s happening. But I don’t drop any classes, I don’t send emails pleading for new sections, I accept my reality like the grown woman I am. Because if there’s one thing college has taught me, it’s that optimism, however misplaced, resets every semester.
