Ahh, college—the overrated version of high school, except with more personal freedom to make up for the torturing amount of work and stress you are to endure, all to earn a piece of paper, in the end, claiming you’re qualified to encounter the next level of life involving complication—a career.

Is it really worth it?

As only a second-semester freshman, I have yet to find out. But despite my short stay, there are still many things I have learned; the biggest being, no matter how much work I seem to put in, college will always ends up kicking my ASS.

Here are 9 signs that you too are getting your butt kicked by books and boredom:

1. Friday nights are for catching up on sleep, not going out

Your friends (the few stragglers you have left) are always inviting you to go out, urging you to take a “break”...as if that’s something you have the capability of doing? At this point I don’t even bother to respond because I’m not familiar with the language they’re speaking, as break isn’t apart of my vocabulary, and I’m an English major. But on a serious note, once you start you cannot stop. I take a day off and suddenly I’m three days behind. Can’t we like, take a rain check for the summer?

2. Your typical “lazy day” is spent on a comfier seat in the library instead of the normal classroom chairs

Back in high school when I wasn’t feeling “it” (responsibility), I’d fake sick and lay in bed all day, for a disgusting amount of time until I couldn’t stand it. Nowadays, I spend the same amount of time trapped in a library, only this time around I call it quits once I no longer can stand how much school work I’ve done. A nerd to the nastiest degree.

3. Every reunion with your bed is a rejoice

You feel like it’s been days, when instead it’s only been twelve hours, but that half a day sucked the little life you had left to give, and you’re ready to hideaway and recharge to do it all again tomorrow. Sleep is sacred, and there’s quite as awful nothing like having your much needed Z’s interrupted by the same blare of alarm every morning, serving as a signal that it’s time for another day of reading and ruckus.

4. Going home for the weekend feels like a vacation

But don’t be fooled, because every second will still be spent doing work, only instead the grind will probably take place in a bathtub or on a couch with a stack of Oreo’s stalking nearby.

5. The bags under your eyes have now become a permanent facial feature

I look like I’m 38 and nearing a mid-life crisis when in reality I’m only 18 and experiencing that crisis, EVERY DAY.

6. You are trash at responding to literally anyone that doesn't involve academics

You might not hear from me for days, maybe even weeks in extreme cases. To further put this in perspective, I took my parents off speed dial and they’ve been replaced by my professors.

7. 24 hours is not enough time in the day

My planner could be painted so much prettier with tasks if the day wasn’t so short. I could probably even fit in three more mental breakdowns if I had just a few more hours.

8. You just force yourself to love the subjects you’re studying

I have more interaction with the information I’ve learned in class than with an actual human being, and you would not believe how passionate I have become about the formation of felsic rocks! Felsic rocks are so interesting that I don’t even need friends, hobbies, or sleep because I could study rocks for the rest of my life…Rocks ROCK <3

9. You kind of lose your mind

*Please reference explanation of point #8*