And so it begins.
1. Walk in motivated and ready to rock
Camping out at the library is not for the faint of heart. You need to go in as a warrior. You usually have brought supplies (laptop, chargers, and textbooks) and sustenance (water, snacks, and blanket/sweatpants) since the battle will be for an undetermined length of time. Perhaps it is one assignment or perhaps it's four. You are motivated and prepared; you don’t doubt the assignment(s) will take time, but you know it couldn’t be that long.
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2. Disappointed you let it get this bad
One to three hours pass and that motivation from earlier has dissipated. Why are you barely doing this assignment? Retreating into your blanket seems like a good plan, for about 30 minutes longer than it should have. Texting your friends to complain about your strategy not working for you may show weakness and result in judgment. Abort the friendship if that is the case. That kind of negativity is not needed in your fragile state. They should be fighting it just like you! As time continues, you sit there with a somber attitude, knowing this is not helping the situation, but only making it worse for yourself.
3. Distracted: When a 10-Minute Break Becomes an Hour
You do not care if you are making it worse on yourself! You might walk around to see what other unfortunate souls have found themselves in that dark, probably cold, outdated campusdungeonbuilding. You check your email. You look at Twitter/Pinterest. You might do anything but what you are supposed to. This is without a doubt though a critical part of the process however. How else can one get the creative juices flowing than without some mental breaks.
4. When the Yearning for Sleep Sneaks Up
Right before, or right after you buckle down and get started again, it is late and the desire for your bed and need for sleep hit you hard. You know you cannot let this feeling win, despite how tempting it might be. What would all these hours have been for if you simply pack up your backpack and walk to your dorm? A WASTE. You push through this feeling until you finally need some reinforcements.
5. In the words of Lorelai Gilmore "Coffee, Coffee, Coffee"
The head reinforcement. You turn to it in this lonely time of need, as much of the other library patrons have already found their ways home at this point. Liking the actual substance that is caffeine is not important - you simply have to lean on the method you most enjoy. Maybe it’s coffee, warm and homey. Or maybe you are a Monster/Redbull type, cold and rugged. Either way, you refuel before setting into the final stages of the assignment. Others would call this the home-stretch or rounding the bases, but, in reality, it is more of a speedy but painful crawl towards the finish line in a desperate attempt to not be dead-last.
Oh, so done.
The time has come where you can begin the trek back to your room and desperately attempt to not wake your roommate. Besides that, you sit back and realize you did a thing, an adult thing, and you got it all accomplished. You beat the beast, they said you couldn’t do it and you showed them!
You can do anything!
