Freshman year of college: the time I quite almost killed myself over a final project

I've told this story to many people in the past - staying up for nearly 3 days straight to work on a final project that I'd badly procrastinated.  But due to the lack of sleep at the time, and the years that have passed since, I tend to get the details wrong when I retell the story.  Lo and behold, I wrote about it the day after it all happened!  I've decided to type it up for all to read.  Friends who are parents, please feel free to use this as educational material as your kids grow up and start thinking it's okay to pull all-nighters for school.  I've added some annotation for clarification in pink.

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30 April, 2010
Freshman year of college
Right before finals week

Oh my god.  This week was so hard.  I procrastinated my art history project WAY too much, like holy butt. [yes, it actually says holy butt.]  After TV night with Steph on Monday, I tried to stay up all night to work on the story.  I fell asleep around 4:30, woke up at 10ish. [I likely still made it to my 10:20 German class, because skipping class is bad m'kay?] Okay, that's kind of enough sleep.  Tuesday I got off work shortly after 1 (am, I worked the closing shift in the caf, so technically this was Wednesday morning) and continued working on the story.  I watched the sun rise (so pretty!) and fell asleep around 7:30 or 8... Woke up at 10:30.  Got breakfast at Hubbard and decided to have some coffee. with lots of cream & sugar.  Went to IAH (my afternoon class), then to CVS for some Vitamin Water and an energy drink because I knew I'd be up all night again.  By the time I went to lunch at Akers I was pretty hyper, so I had another cup of coffee. [a completely logical decision.]  Then, despite how pretty it was outside, I sat inside and drew. And drew. And drew.  I think I ate dinner in there somewhere.  Around 1 or maybe 2 (am, mind you) I chugged down most of a can of Amp before realizing that 1 can = 2 servings. then I started going insane...

I started posting random stuff on Facebook.  I worked right through sunrise and around 7:45 decided it was time for breakfast. took a shower. got back to work.  Realized that my heart was beating too quickly and I sometimes felt out of breath just sitting there drawing.  By this time, my writer's callous and right arm were getting sore, but I still had lots of work to do.  So I kept on working until 12:30, when I had to go to bio.  I was pretty freaking out because holy crap, I still had 2 drawings to do and I had to attach the book and shit I had like an hour after bio to do it.  I was so tired, too.  I started falling asleep and I'm pretty sure I hallucinated a little.  I thought a picture of a rain cloud was moving and raining, and that a bunny was breathing and twitching its head. [the prof never used animations in his slides, only still images.] Then I thought I saw... I don't know, water or something spurting out of the wall.  After class I picked up some food from Sparty's and went back to my dorm.  Then I really started freaking out.  I was straight up out of breath but just sitting there, and even though I knew I had everything under control I started crying.  I was like "no, you're wrong. Everything is fine.  Stop being illogical." but I kept crying anyway. [I'm pretty confident that this is the first and only panic attack I have ever experienced.] So I ate my food and watched my favorite videos on YouTube and felt better.  I finished up one of the empty pages, attached everything, and went to class where I threw up a poopless poop angel (complete with confused flies) onto the blank page.  Turned the little SOB in and mostly fell asleep through class.  By this time I was basically a zombie.  But the sun had come back out after clouds leading up to like a 5 minute rain, and I had the story off my damn chest, so I was feeling a little better. 

I happily turned in the books I'd used [for the research] and then bought some new earphones at the International Center.  I called Ben and YAY, he's coming to MSU on Saturday! <3 When I got home I did some German homework and went to bed.  At 7:45.  Then I woke up at 8:55... today. Oh my god. I wish I could sleep that deeply and blissfully every night.  So yeah, I would rate this experience about a 10 on the crazy scale.  Never, ever, ever drinking coffee again.  Or procrastinating so horribly. Ever.  I am so sorry for what I did to my body.  [closing about how my hand was cramping and I wanted to go outside]

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I'd like to point out that I would have had an extra two hours to work on the project and probably not have a panic attack had I decided to skip bio the day the project was due.  But nooo, I had to be in class!!!!!  Compare this to my senior year when I was like "I'm behind on work in Lisa's class, so I'm going to skip Lisa's class today and work on the projects."  I certainly did change a lot in a few semesters.

And just for the record: my body still can't handle caffeine.  I don't know if I would always have been caffeine-sensitive, or if I broke the receptors in my brain that week or something.  But if I drink anything stronger than a black tea (or two black teas in a row), I get very shaky and breathing gets uncomfortable.  I don't get the energy boost and then I crash hard and pretty much can't function unless I take a nap.

2016 Reading Challenge: Summary!

Well, 2016 has come and gone and I have to admit: I didn't complete the challenge.  But I'm not upset about it, and I don't feel down on myself, and I'm not gonna let it keep me from reading in 2017 out of some lame "well if I couldn't do it LAST year..." excuse.

Honestly, the main reason I failed to complete the challenge is because I read several books that didn't count towards the challenge!

I did kind of stop choosing to read while at home, letting games and my nails and crocheting get in the way of that again, but I always read for about an hour a day on the Metro!  Actually, that's not entirely true - I also listened to one and almost a half audio books.  I never thought I would have the attention span for audio books, but as it turns out, they're great for a Metro commute - I can let my sleepy pre- and post-work eyes rest and still make progress in the book!

So if we're counting audio books (and I definitely think we should), I did manage to check off one more book from the challenge: a book recommended by a friend.  When I asked my coworker for an audio book recommendation (I explained to her that the only one I'd ever listened to before was Harry Potter, so I was used to an incredible narrator), she suggested Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, narrated by Stephen Fry.  Oh. my. gosh.  It was an incredible experience listening to that narration!  Stephen Fry did different voices for different characters, which is the #1 thing I need in an audio book so I can tell who the heck is talking.  And his voices were so. funny.  The book constantly had me laughing out loud on the Metro - I'm sure I got some funny looks!  The rest of the series (which I now definitely want to listen to) is narrated by none other than Martin Freeman.  (Is he knighted? cuz I kinda want to call him Sir Martin Freeman.)  I could tell while listening to the book that Martin was absolutely perfect for playing the role of Arthur Dent in the movie (which I did see, but don't really remember; I do remember that it wasn't received terribly well by fans of the book).  So for him to narrate the rest of the book series is just so exciting!

Okay, so, let's go over the list one last time:

BOOKS FOR THE CHALLENGE

• A book published this year: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, JK Rowling 💖
• A book you can finish in a day: The Strange Library, Haruki Murakami 👍
• A book you've been meaning to read: Not Quite the Classics, Colin Mochrie 💖
• A book you should have read in school: Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut 💖
• A book chosen for you by your spouse etc: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 💖
• A book published before you were born: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne 👍
• A book that was banned at some point: Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov 👎
• A book you own but have never read: Haunting Experiences: Encounters with the Otherworldly, Michelle Belanger 👌
• A book that intimidates you: Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring,  JRR Tolkein 👎
• A book you've already read at least once: The Book Thief, Markus Zusak 💖

SKIPPED CHALLENGES

• A book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller: skipped because I never got around to seeking recommendations (partly because I don't know them personally and I'm chicken to introduce myself)
• A book you previously abandoned: skipped because I have only ever abandoned books that bored me senseless, and I didn't want to hate the book I was reading

BOOKS THAT WEREN'T A PART OF THE CHALLENGE

• Bee Season, Maya Goldberg 👍
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (audio book - not finished because the narrator was pretty boring and did NOT distinguish between character voices) 👌
• Magic Kingdom for Sale, Terry Brooks 👍
• The Black Unicorn, Terry Brooks (got about 1/3 through before the year ended) 👍

I decided to rate the books I read this year with a super professional and adult emoji method. 💖 means I loved the book and/or loved reading it; 👍 means I liked it a lot but didn't quite love it; 👌 means it was ok but I didn't quite like it a lot; 👎 means I did not like reading it but doesn't necessarily mean I think it's a bad book.  I did write up a blog post on most of these books, so if you're curious as to why I rated it a certain way, find it in my previous posts!  They're conveniently all tagged with "2016 reading challenge."

So, even though I only got 10/12 on the challenge (which is still a passing grade, hey!), I definitely enjoyed it!  I'm so glad I made the effort to read more in 2016.  I will be sure to stay in the habit for 2017!  Perhaps I'll challenge myself to read one book more than I did this year. :)