One thing everyone should know about me is that I am not a morning person. I'm one of those people whose longest part of their morning routine is deciding to get out of bed. Every semester I make it my goal to find out how late I can stay in bed before I am late to my morning class. I just can't stand being awake and functional before noon. Any earlier and I have to drag myself out of bed, especially on Mondays.
After going through my morning routine of brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, and throwing on a hoodie, a clean pair of jeans, and my converse, I made my way through campus to head to my class. Earbuds in, music blaring, not caring about whatever was going on in the world around me. Every other student was either doing the same thing or talking to their friend as they made their way to wherever they were going. Not going to lie, I kind of felt out of place here but never enough to transfer to another school. It wasn't like I could afford to anyways. I picked an in-state school for a reason, and I wasn't going to change my mind anytime soon.
I made my way into the lecture hall, where there were a few students already there. I made my way to my spot. It was in the middle left of the lecture hall. That way, I wasn't in the front where the professors interact, but also not in the back where I could completely slack off. I was also next to an aisle so I could make a quick escape once the class was over. This was the ideal spot for when I had a rough day and didn't want to be in the lecture. It also hid that I was not one hundred percent listening to the lecture. Like I said before, school and my attention span did not get along. Once I lost focus, my semester was fucked.
Once in my seat, I pulled out my notebook, pencil, and blue pen. I flipped my notebook open and placed my pen and pencil on top. I then pulled my phone out of my hoodie and started scrolling Instagram until my professor started class. Even then, I would still end up back on my phone during class because I can't stand this professor. I was doomed when I found out that this professor was on the faculty version of academic probation. She sucked at teaching, and her exams were ridiculously hard. The only reason that she hadn't been fired was that she curved the hell out of her class at the end of the semester, so everyone passed, but it didn't mean we learned anything. She only taught so she could get university funding for her research.
Once class started, I sat there dreading how long my day was going to be. I already missed being at home with the comfort of my bed. Three weeks until I was home again. Five more lectures and an exam, and then I didn't have to deal with this professor ever again, hopefully. That was what I kept telling myself. I just had to deal with this for just a little bit longer.
After a long day of being in lectures, I was back at my desk working on homework. I was using my Bluetooth headphones instead of my earbuds. My headphones were better for when I work on my schoolwork or studying. I would get distracted with the cord to my earbuds, and I had a Samsung, so it wasn't like I had AirPods. Not that I would want them. I would have ended up losing them constantly.
It was dinner time, and my roommates and I all slowly made our way to the kitchen. One by one, we all made our food individually. Layla, Alice, and I were all reheating Thanksgiving leftovers while Ronnie made herself chicken tenders. Once our food was cooked, we all swarmed around our little island in the kitchen to talk.
"The Winterfest is on Friday. Do you guys want to go?" Layla asked. Every year, the Friday before dead week, the campus was opened up to the public for WinterFest. They would light up the campus tree, give carriage rides around campus. They had a race, gave out free food, and most importantly, they had late-night ice skating.
Alice gave me a knowing look and said, "Maybe we can go ice skating this year." I rolled my eyes at that. Last year, Alice and I were roommates and hardly knew anyone on our floor. Neither one of us had a car, so we walked to the ice rink. When we got there, we were already freezing, and there was a long line out the door. We turned around and walked back to our dorm. Let's say that neither one of us were happy that night.
"It was fun last year minus the attempt to go ice skating. I am down if everyone else is," I said.
"Sure, I'm okay with going," Ronnie said. Alice nodded, declaring that we made plans official for Friday. "Also, I was thinking the following Friday, we could go out to dinner. We could have one last roommate dinner before the semester is over. One final meal together before we are all on different schedules with finals."
At the beginning of the semester, we tried to have dinner together, but it quickly became difficult due to our different schedules. We still either ate with one another, or we would just hang out in the kitchen while someone made their own food. I usually migrated out of my room when I heard people. Dinner time was the only time all four of us might have been awake. It all depended on if someone takes a nap after classes or not. Most of the time, we saw one another at dinner time.
"Do we want to make dinner, or are we going out?" Alice asked.
"I was thinking about going out that we don't have to find something we all like."
Not going to lie, we were a little bit picky when it comes to what we eat. Whether it was allergies or just disliking the food, it was difficult deciding where to go. Usually, we ordered pizza or went to the same place.
"Panera?" I suggested. Despite it being slightly expensive, Panera was a place we all could eat at, and it was better priced than most restaurants in campus town.
Everyone thought about it before Layla said, "What if we went to Texas Roadhouse instead? We can splurge a little to celebrate the end of the semester." We all nodded in agreement. We never splurge often, but when we do, it is something like getting donuts at night or going to Texas Roadhouse instead of fast food. Little things like this didn't mean much, but to a broke college student, it was a lot.
"I already asked Layla, but how was everyone's break?" I asked. This caused us to talk about what happened while we were all separated. Layla spoke about how she hung out with her friends and family. Alice spent a lot of time with her boyfriend, and they even went to each other's family's Thanksgivings. She got to meet all of his family and vise versa. Ronnie talked about her wild hangouts with her friends at home.
After talking, catching up, and hanging out for a bit, we all went back to our rooms. I finished up any remaining homework I didn't get done before eating. Once I finished, I curled up in my bed, scrolling through Instagram, sending memes to my friends. It wasn't long until I passed out in the crappy bed the school gave us. The joys of living in an on-campus apartment were that we still got a crappy bed. However, it was slightly better than the dorm beds, so it was a slight plus.
I let my exhausted mind take me through a dreamless night. Not a single thought of what happened today and what was going to happen tomorrow. Just an empty mind.
