9AM Starts Are Evil.

Before I started uni, I’d always see others moaning about their 9am starts and I’d think how lucky they are – they can roll out of bed and into uni (assuming they live in halls), whereas I had to get up at half past six to be at secondary school for half past eight. I now understand what it is that people hate about them. When you’re at secondary school, you’re generally still living at home – you have someone to force you out of bed. At uni, you don’t, and if your alarm doesn’t go of and you’re in a cocodamol-induced stupor, as I was this morning, a 9am start becomes your worst enemy.

Why was I in a cocodamol-induced stupor? Because in yesterday’s lesson, I was pulled into a door during a trust exercize (yep, that’s really going to make me trust someone!), and hurt my back. My back is already not in great shape, but yesterday it was hurting a lot so before bed, I took a cocodamol to try and help me sleep. It definitely did help me sleep – unfortunately it made me sleep for a bit too long, so by the time I woke up at half past 9, the cut-off point for being allowed into the lecture had already passed (if you arrive late but before half past nine, you apologize to the class and join in. If you’re beyond half an hour late, you’re not allowed into the lecture, which is fair enough because they don’t want you disturbing the others).

So instead I’ve been productive with my morning, finding monologues that I can use for my assessed piece in November – currently thinking of either Yvaine describing her love to Tristan from “Stardust”, or a monologue from “I, Robot”, although if anyone has any suggestions they’re gratefully received! – and tidying up my room, doing a bit of re-arranging and so on 🙂 Later on I’m going into town to buy a NEW ALARM CLOCK!

So, if you’re a school/college student and think “9am starts are easy, I won’t struggle with them”, think again – when you get to university, you might just be surprised. The biggest downside to independence I’ve found so far hasn’t been having to buy your own food or clean for yourself – those things are quite rewarding and you feel proud of yourself. There’s no pride in missing a 9am lecture because you don’t have someone to force you out of bed!

Me + college = :(

Today has made me really rather angry. Apparently, I’m not ill enough to warrant taking a day off college, even when I’m stuck in bed with a splitting headache and feeling like my whole body is about to either explode or just die. It doesn’t matter that I’m up to date with homework and assignments and I’m not behind in my abilities, nor does it matter that I understand the work, apparently. No, apparently, it is SUCH a hardship for my teacher when I’m off college. It must cause him so much physical pain, so much emotional torment, when he walks into the classroom and sees my vacant seat as a dismal reminder of the fact that, gasp, shock and horror of all horrors, PEOPLE GET ILL.

Why do some teachers find this so hard to understand? PEOPLE GET ILL. And it isn’t just college that is the problem – they don’t realize, because they drive in, in their nice, warm, comfortable car where it’s not overcrowded or noisy, and if they feel ill, they can drive home. They forget that some of us have to get up at ridiculous o’clock, feeling like death warmed up, get on a cold, noisy bus that is full of not just fellow students, but also rowdy school students, elderly people who do nothing but complain about the rowdy school students, and the general public, who sit there looking quite uncomfortable at it all. That isn’t exactly the best thing to help a headache, is it? And neither is sitting through a ridiculously boring lecture, which lasts an hour and a half when I’m sure it could be condensed into an hour, because all we learn is the same thing, over and over again, the same way, until we all just want to forget about it and go home.

Maybe, if we all had easy lives at home and great health, we’d all be in 100% of the time. But people DON’T have easy lives at home, and they DON’T have great health. It’s not my fault that I’m ill, nor is it my fault that my doctor has seemingly no interest in helping me (or anyone else, for that matter, if what others say is true), and it’s not my fault that I don’t have a perfectly conventional family, and I think some teachers really need to get that into their heads before they start shooting their mouths of.

Jesus. And THEY’RE meant to be the intelligent ones?