Despite only being a freshman in college, I'm so tired. It's so hard balancing the workload and trying to get in your "you time" every day. The stress is awful, and I can't blame anyone that's ever dropped out of college. I want to drop out of everything and sleep all day, at the moment. Sadly, I can't, but I'm sure many, many, other students feel the same way I do. It can be hard to go to school longer than you probably have to, especially with the workforce nowadays. Just a few weeks ago someone told me that getting a degree was useless because most jobs were going to those with less education. I don't really understand it, but I seriously doubt it.

Without further ado to any tired minds out there, here are some ways to tell if you're almost too tired to care...

1. Your sleep schedule

You find yourself sleeping less and less because you don't care if you hit snooze one too many times. Missing your 8 AM class is becoming less and less important to you.

OR

You find yourself sleeping more because you don't care to get your assignments done on time. You're just utterly done with life and are perfectly okay with sleeping through all of your classes. (This also includes sleeping in your classes without trying to hide it.)

*see #7*

2. What even is nutrition?

You keep buying fast food and/or various junk foods, whether with the life-saving coupons or not, and gobbling up your entire stash every time you feel the stress ebb in. Because you were stocking up on your favorite snack (that you can't afford) for midterms and finals, you have to go back to the store and buy it all over again because of that hard day you had where you thought, "I deserve this."

Basically, you couldn't care less if you're eating healthy and would rather enjoy the taste of the fatty foods before the tests murder your soul.

3. Bathing

What is there to say really?

"Did I sweat a lot today?" "Do I smell?" "Do I really want to spend time in the shower of all places?"

Nope! So you go a couple days without bathing.

Not going to lie, I've stuck my head under the faucet to make it look like I've showered.

4. Studying

If you're studying at all, it's more like cramming. Think of when a little kid gets his favorite kind of cupcake... You best believe he's going to try to shove that entire thing into his mouth at once. Of course, emphasis on the "try." Now, we for sure don't have a delicious cupcake; we have weeks worth of notes, and it's not nearly as delicious as the chocolate frosting. But, we will try to shove them as far into our mouths as humanly possible in the five minutes before our test.

*see #6*

5. "You time"

Psychology taught me that you can't just study all the time. You have to have "you time" at some point so that the encoding of the notes in your brain is more efficient. However, you study once and say you'll study again after an episode of Breaking Bad. Then you keep watching, saying, "I'm sure the test won't be that bad. I know what I need to."

...This is when your "you time" has gone too far, but there's no stopping it. And, despite learning that you indeed have no idea what the test even says, you keep bingeing anyway.

The same goes for Minecraft. Yeah, I'm looking at you, my dearest sister.

*see #7*

6. Relying on others

Admit it: you take advantage of study groups, especially if you've fallen asleep in class more than once and woke up to find scribbles on the page as if you tried to keep writing in your sleep. (I've had dreams where I was taking the notes only to wake up and not see them.)

So, when your classmates offer to get together before the midterm and one of them is the most generous person alive and gives their very detailed notes to everyone, you'll be relying on them for as long as they will allow.

7. Laziness

It's so, so easy to be lazy. We all know this. All you have to do is grab a snack, grab your portable charger, and sit down. I myself spend hours just sitting on my couch. Of course, I have my homework on my laptop, but if I'm not doing homework, I'm watching YouTube and Netflix.

You're too tired to care, though, when you know you have assignments or a test due really soon, and yet you still sit down to binge Markiplier's Subnautica series instead,

8. Testing

So, you're too lazy to study and totally relying on study groups to keep you informed... The test comes and you sit there staring at it. It might not even be that you don't know the information, but just that you don't feel like taking the test. You might still try on it; you might not. But either way, you're walking out of that room likely without a care on what grade you get.

I'm not used to being so tired. I used to be such a good student, but as I realize how much longer I have left of school, I get more and more drained. I don't know if I'll be able to keep going. I would definitely like to. I mean, I've always done so well. Is it the challenge of college? Is it the constant saying by professors that what I do here will get me nowhere? I don't know, and I don't know if I should. I'm going to keep trying, of course, to not be so tired, to care again.

Good luck to all.