One Long, Hard, Tiring, Messy, Exhilarating Day
These last twenty-four hours have been some of the hardest of my life. They’ve also been some of the best. Let me explain.
Yesterday, I finished up with everything at school at about 5:00pm. I often take the city bus home, and today I found myself on a lightly loaded bus with some headphones in my ears. It wasn’t an unpleasant ride, and after an hour, I had safely disembarked a few blocks away from my house. I was almost home.
Or so I thought.
As I walked through a freeway underpass on the way home, I saw ahead that the train tracks I usually cross were blocked off. The bars were down, train stopped, police cars with lights shining every which way parked perpendicular to the road. There would be no getting through.
Hoping that I could avoid a longer walk home, I called my house, and after several tries, no one had answered. At first annoyed at the proposition, I realized that if I wanted to get home, I would have to walk several blocks down the road and cross the nearby bridge. Oh well, I could do it.
Forty-five minutes later, I entered my home, tired, legs on fire, but with a sense of accomplishment at the way I had powered through the walk home. It turned out my Dad had been home, but having forgotten my phone number, had decided to ignore the calls I made home. Oh well, I made it home anyway.
I had a paper due the next morning for my Honors Critical Thinking class. I knew what I wanted to say, I just needed to write it. However, as I sat in front of my computer screen, I found the words sliding out at the speed of molasses, and my brain functioning with the accuracy of a blindfolded darts player. I wasn’t accomplishing much of anything.
So I went to sleep, promising myself that I would wake up at 4:00 the next morning to finish. At 6:30, I awoke, immediately awash in fear, and scrambling out of bed, I ran to my parents to beg for a ride to the first day of new job.
Did I mention that was happening? No? Well, it was.
Thankfully my father was able to give me a lift, and through buffeting, hurricane force winds (not kidding), we made it to school, and I made it on time to my first day at my job. The job went well, consisting mostly of introductions and training. Pretty much what I expected. I also had a bit of downtime, and was able to finish writing my paper.
However, I wasn’t able to print it. So, going to my Critical Thinking class, I asked my Professor if I could come in during his office hours to turn in the assignment. He said yes, and as soon as class ended, I bolted to the Honors Computer Lab with the hope of printing my paper.
Wouldn’t you know it, they were out of paper.
So, I went to another computer lab for student mentor students. Technically I am neither a mentor or a mentee, but they are pretty generous with the lab, and let me use it.
They were also out of paper.
So, brain whirring with fear, I ran across campus to the computer science labs in Jack Brown Hall, and there I managed to finally print out my assignment. As I put it into my folder though, I saw that the ink hadn’t dried, and it was smudging everywhere, including all over my fingers. I didn’t have much time left though, so I ran back to the Honors Lab, where I stapled my paper (the comp sci lab being devoid of noticeable staplers), and after that, I ran to my professor’s office.
He accepted the smudgy assignment, and I agreed to email it to him. Finally with about forty-five minutes until my Calculus class, I decided to go have a late lunch. I ate my food, and ran into another Honors student, whom I chatted with until 3:50. We parted ways, and I went to my Calculus class.
As if I needed another problem, I had forgotten to do half of the homework. With no time and no solutions, I simply turned in the half I had. Oh well.
Things calmed down after that. I finished class, I emailed my paper, and now I am sitting on the third floor of Jack Brown taking a bit of a break before riding the bus home again.
Here’s to hoping the road is wide open this time.
