Credit: Queensland University
*BzzzBzzz* The familiar noise of my alarm made me jump. It was 6AM. As usual these past days, I woke up to darkness outside and coldness trying to sneak up under my blanket. I wanted to hit the snooze button again, but the thought of a steaming cup of coffee got me out of bed.
It’s fun to be a student, they said. It’s gonna be the time of your life, they said. Enjoy every moment, they said. It’s funny how people tell you all this stuff, isn’t it?
I know I’m not the only student out here whose alarm goes off too early. I’m not the only one trying to balance two jobs, lectures, assignments, group work, extracurricular activities, hobbies, enough sleep, oh yea and a social life. Fun, right?
I bow down in respect to anyone who can manage easily, you rock! But for me at least, I often feel as if there were not enough hours in a day, not enough time for the important things, and defintiely not enough time for sleep.
Especially, when the exam period knocks on your door unexpectedly as always, it simply sucks to be a student: the pressure is on, you feel like you should be studying 24/7 and you can’t drink nearly enough vino to cope with the amount of stress.
But not this time.
Last Saturday, I had to go to the Dutch Design Week for a project I was working on. It was the Saturday before my exam week and I thought to myself: Gosh, this is just great! Best timing EVER. Not. I have 4 exams to prepare for…
You know what happened?
I spent the entire day talking to people from all over the world, talked to a CEO of a behaviour change company, discovered breathtaking designs and did not think about the approaching exam nightmare. Not even a split second.
So the next morning, my alarm went off at 6AM again (I had actually gotten used to it, how scary!!!), I woke up and thought: fuck it. Where has my trust in real life learning gone? I packed my bag and went back to the Design Week.uee
