I spent 15 and a half hours in the library

Finals are finished and my first year at college has come to an end. Before starting our fantastic summer vacation, I wanted to reflect on what I have done to survive those final weeks. To be honest, I’m always proud of being the type of person that doesn’t procrastinate much – until finals, that is.

Although I knew my first final was coming in two days, I still had no energy to get out of bed… which meant the only way to get through my exam would be to spend a full day and night in the library.

10:00am

There was almost no one there when I arrived – I guess most of them were still sleeping. Today, the subject was Latin.

I got my textbooks and online exercise prepared and was ready to start the day.

12:00pm

Morning is always the best time for me to study. I was quite energetic and library was quiet enough for me to focus on my work.

See, I had gotten two chapters done and eight to go.

1:00pm

I just had my lunch and came back to library. I was already tired and really wanted to have a nap, but I forced myself to resist. Usually I have two remedies for sleepiness. First, I went to rest room and washed my face. It helped me stay awaken temporarily.

Then I would had a little snack from the vending machine – the snack would be the stimulus for my whole afternoon.

5:00pm

I was now half way to the end of the day. Half way through! Four chapters done and six more to go.

I decided it was time for a little study break, time to watch League of Legends Championship.

8:00pm

I was exhausted. May pace slowed down. I only finished one chapter in the past two hours. My thought process started to become more negative: “Why do I choose Latin course? Come on, it’s a dead language and it’s so complicated.

“Can you believe there are more than sixty conversions just for one word? Oh my God and I have to remember all of them！”

9:00pm

Time for Monster, my best friend.

10:00pm

“Two more chapters and then I’m done”, I told myself. My friend and I were both struggling at this stage.

10:30pm

“Ok, get the translation part done first. Then I have to take a rest.”

I really recommend reading magna as a way of resting. Magna is a lot of fun, and helped me with the overwhelming memorization of Latin words.

11:00pm

Go back to study. Sad.

12:00pm

Thanks to my Monster, I didn’t feel quite so sleepy. I made myself so the library was gonna closed at 2:00am. Besides, my final was at 9:00am so I had to ensure at least six hours of sleep.

1:00am

Last chapter and last paragraph to translate. Cheers! I actually didn’t know what I was drawing anymore, lol.

1:30am

Congrats to me! I had finished all the chapters. I knew my bed missed me a lot. I’m coming right now!

I felt really exhausted after a whole day with Latin. Reflecting on my final week, I realized one thing.

Staying overnight was not that terrible – the most terrible thing was to focus on one single subject for the entire day.