It was around nine months back that I moved into a dorm on campus. It has been around nine months I have seen that dorm since, as I moved into a new accommodation within my first week on campus. Rapid progress, I know. This new, magical residence calls itself 'The Library.' Here, myths of productivity actually realize themselves on a daily - nay, hourly, basis - fueled on into the long hours of the night by the very friendly Starbucks outlet that probably knows me by face and order, if not by name, at this point in my freshman year, and laptops and textbooks pile on desks every day as I and my fellow students fight valiantly with the almost Herculean loads of homework our professors pile on us week after week, till the calendar runs out of events to declare and we finally stop putting alarms on our clocks.

And below you shall see an extremely accurate pictorial representation of the current state of affairs in the life of a college student :

Had a good laugh? Moving on, then. We don't have time to laugh. Or cry. Or do anything really, apart from letting the basic biological processes that keep us alive tick away in the background, responding only to the signals that send us on periodic trips to the restroom, the steps to take us there being the only break most of us end up getting. In between coffee breaks and more coffee in the dorm, I am absolutely certain that my blood, if it comes back from a lab workup, must be 90% of 90% of Starbucks products, sparing the 10% I have yet to order from them.

And as for my friends who have yet to discover the wonders of a Starbucks addiction, verily I proclaim unto thee -

*Cue Darth Vader theme from Star Wars composed by John Williams*.

Come over to the dark side. We have cookies and sleeplessness. Mostly sleeplessness, though - cookies are hard to come by, unless we somehow miraculously manage a trip to Subway and back before the timer on one of the myriad assignments that is being worked on runs out and we burst into eloquent monologues involving all kinds of colorful language with words that would be entirely in their element on the next Eminem album.

Speaking of albums - the library is our studio, our post production house, our album release press conference, our concert venue, our merchandise stall. And the music is the homework we all struggle to stay on top of on a daily basis.

But like the invisible relationships artists build with their fans, the one we build with the people in it is invaluable as well - striving together to get ahead on the different paths we have chosen for ourselves, while making friends along the way, and most importantly, not forgetting to live, smile and laugh.

Now, back to the library.