Challenge 32: Late night

143. First experiences can be defining. Cite a first experience that you have had and explain its impact on you. (University of Pennsylvania)

Sleeping before 12am has been a regular habit throughout my life. At home, my parents make sure I am asleep by then, and in school I try my best to be in bed by then. However, due to the combination of my procrastination and my work load, I was up way past my bedtime. The fact that we had access to the internet till 12 didn’t help either. I constantly found myself surfing the web to keep me from the monotonous note taking I had to do. Having 20 pages of note and a poster due the next day, I fought sleep until victory was evident. By one in the morning, I was completely awake and had finished half of my notes, and had yet to begin my poster.

I felt no sign of tiredness and was thankful for the cool wind for keeping me wide awake. Now with no distraction in front of me, I worked diligently and finished my last set of notes in half the time it took me to finish the previous one while the internet worked. Once I completed that, I took a five minute break in which I opened a packet of chocolate-chip cookies and savored every bit of it. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I had finished the last cookie.

I sighed to myself as I realized that I still had my poster to complete. As a driving force to keep me working, I thought I would reward myself with a bar of chocolate once I completed the poster. My goal was to finish it in the next hour, and sleep by three. I got a good start to my poster until I realized that I didn’t have all the materials I needed. I frantically looked everywhere for tape, a set of markers and a pair of scissors. By the time I got those, it was past three, and my mission had failed miserably. I finished the rest of my work in a rush and cleaned up the mess and completely forgot about my chocolate. By the time I washed up and got into bed, it was around five and I had a little more than an hour to sleep.

This was the first time I had slept at such an hour on a school day. That very morning I woke up with a sore neck and back. I had dark circles around my swollen eyes, and a runny nose, thanks to the wind that I was so grateful for. Each class was a nightmare as each second seemed to pass by like hours and I handed in a crappy poster. That night, I learnt the importance of a good night’s rest and how I should learn to prioritize my time wisely.