My classes start at 9:30 every morning this term.

If the world operated on my sense of time, then the concept of "morning" would be applied to a time no earlier than 2 PM. Unfortunately for me, that will probably never happen. Even more unfortunately, I am a ridiculously heavy sleeper who could slumber through the initiation of a massive nuclear war. And now I somehow have to get up at 7:30 AM five days a week.

(If you are my stepdad, you are probably laughing so hard you just fell out of your chair. He spent four years waking me up at 5 AM for school, which is a truly Herculean task. Consider it retribution. Or payback. Or both.)

I've been taking the 8-9AM hour at desk every weekday morning for the last three weeks, since I'm pretty sure I won't get up in the morning unless I'm being paid to do so. When my alarm clock goes off in the morning and I'm tempted to cross the room and hit snooze, it's like a little voice in my head says, "I'll pay you $9.25 if you get out of bed right now." So far, the voice is compelling enough for me to immediately get up, shower, and dress. It's been working out nicely.

As I'm sure you can all understand, I was thoroughly looking forward to sleeping in last Saturday. I unplugged my alarm and pulled my window shade before going to bed at 3 AM, fully prepared to be knocked out until well into the day.

I woke up without any provocation at 7:15 AM.

Someone up there hates me.

I have been assigned exactly zero problem sets since December of 2007.

I realize that everyone and their grandmother thinks I am a lucky bastard. I hate psets - seriously, I really hate them - so the fact that I've been able to avoid them for so long means that even I belong to that party. I've passed on pset- and exam- heavy classes in favor of those with huge end-of-term papers and projects, hours upon hours of darkroom and Photoshop time, lab reports galore, and hundreds of pages of reading each night. Last semester, I had a total of one midterm and one final.

I find these projects and reading assignments far more conducive to my learning (and far more enjoyable to do) than psets and exams, so it all works out nicely.

This term, however, my luck has finally run out. 7.05, 9.22, 9.59, and 9.65 collectively have six problem sets, four papers, and thirteen exams. I also still have about 60-70 pages of reading per class per night.

As you can see, I got served.

If at any point in the upcoming months you find yourself wondering "Hey, where'd that Keri girl go?", I encourage you to read this post again and think about what I could be doing with my life right then. Don't spend too much time doing that, though. You could be off living your own instead.

I'm off to make myself a sandwich and read about protein folding.

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

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Oh em gee, a misfolded protein! (It's a cow with mad cow disease, because of a prion, see... =D)

Posted by: 0 on February 19, 2009

Oh, gosh, that didn't work at all. Pretend there are spaces between some of those dashes...

Posted by: Naiviv on February 19, 2009

That is a far better comment than "first" could ever hope to be.

Posted by: Keri on February 19, 2009

Is there some kind of incentive or something to posting the first comment? A disproportionate amount of first comments seem to be dedicated to their first-ness (and a number of second comments, too). Somehow it doesn't seem to be characteristic of MIT--unless there's a hidden meaning or value to it?

Posted by: Ryan on February 19, 2009

Mmmm, protein folding.

Posted by: Paul on February 19, 2009

FIRST!

When do you guys sleep? I usually get 6-7 hours. Is it actually worse at MIT?

Posted by: FIRST! on February 19, 2009

Somehow it doesn't seem to be characteristic of MIT--unless there's a hidden meaning or value to it?

This is the Internet. 'nuff said.

Posted by: Chris on February 19, 2009

Uhhh General Biochemistry =). If I'm accepted I plan on taking course 7 (Biology! Yay!), so I'll get to "suffer" the same p-sets you took/will take, hehe.

Waking up at 7:30 AM sounds nice, but 4 hours of sleep doesn't. I wake up at 6:20 AM >.Uhhh General Biochemistry =). If I'm accepted I plan on taking course 7 (Biology! Yay!), so I'll get to "suffer" the same p-sets you took/will take, hehe.

Waking up at 7:30 AM sounds nice, but 4 hours of sleep doesn't. I wake up at 6:20 AM >.<, but I'm already used to it .

~Julio ('14?)

Posted by: Julio ('14?) on February 19, 2009

I'm convinced that they purposely have the 7.05 lecture at 9.30 am because that automatically guarantees that 1/3 of the class will not show up for lecture and will subsequently get screwed over on the exam (but also set the curve, which makes it easy for the teaching staff to assign grades).

I think I'm going to be in that 1/3, haha.

Posted by: Oasis '11 on February 19, 2009

ohhh is that a Neko Case reference? LOVE HER.

Posted by: Sam on February 20, 2009

hey ............someone else other than yan knows how to blog here..............lol.........my favorite was
"I'm tempted to cross the room and hit snooze, it's like a little voice in my head says, "I'll pay you $9.25 if you get out of bed right now." So "

lol.......

Posted by: jimmy '13 on February 20, 2009

Yeah, I usually get 3-6 hours of sleep each night! (Just used to staying up very late) Don't MIT students get 5 hours at the least?

Posted by: v_corp7 on February 20, 2009

Pssh, 7.05 psets are neither collected nor graded. Doesn't count!

Posted by: 0 on February 20, 2009

what do you do at desk?

Posted by: deng on February 20, 2009

Ryan - there is no reason. Not one I know of, that is.

Chris - I hate the Internet. Just so everyone knows.

Anonymous - But if most people want to stand a chance of passing 7.05, they'll do the psets.

Posted by: Keri on February 20, 2009

I read the transfer form for MIT.Do I just need to download it, get its printouts,give the evaluation letters to my teachers and fill in the rest(along with the letters)with pen(black ink)?
Also,since many teachers are willing to give me recommendations,should I get many printouts of evaluation letters and give it to them or should I ask them to do so in separate sheets?
Please reply soon!!!

Posted by: abhi on February 21, 2009

I never really liked getting up early for school either :-(( But it seems that we both have esoterically good views about school!!!
Just think when we rest are we really resting?

Posted by: Christopher on February 22, 2009

Wow. Doing that 8-9 desk shift just sounds like adding insult to injury, to me.

Posted by: Christina on February 22, 2009

If I don't do it, I won't shower in the morning, and that's a worse fate than getting up even earlier.

Posted by: Keri on February 22, 2009

i need a friend.who will tell me more abot mit

Posted by: fidelis on February 25, 2009

i need a friend.who will tell me more abot mit

Posted by: fidelis on February 25, 2009

Hey guys are the rumors that i hear about MIT true? Like i heard that you have to be number 1 or number 2 to get in. I am worried cuz i really want to go to this school but i am not number 1 or 2.

Posted by: scitechian on March 5, 2009

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