i have never been this unprepared for a test by Suzuko O. '30

so today i wake up at 9:30 even though it’s a wednesday, because i have to leave the dorm by 9:50 in order to walk across campus to get to the z⁠01 zesiger center, mit’s athletics area/gym/pool place for my fencing class. i take a slightly diverted route by the walker memorial, where i start a stopwatch to time how long it takes. i get a little held up at the check-in at the z because something is wrong with my id, but i note that it takes ~8 minutes to get from walker to the z. 

fencing is fun. i am a bit sleepy – i didn’t sleep the best; kept waking up at times. today we start off with stretches, then some footwork, and then we get some equipment on. yay! we all get a helmet, a glove, and a saber. we learn punch-cut and then mix that with a lunge, and then we take turns doing this attack on the instructor and on some dummies. we start wrapping up at 10:52; i would guess i walk out the door at 10:54. go down stairs walk out doors walk eastside to walker

this is why i was timing myself – i wanted to make sure i had enough time to get from pe to my chem midterm in walker. luckily because of mit time⁠02 classes end 5 before the hour and start 5 past i got there in time (like 11:02) and had time to use the restroom and whatnot. i write my name on the paper test in front of me. at 11:06, “you can start the exam!” i open the test

wtf wtf wtf how the heck do i do this ??? ?? what. okay lemme start here. wow this seems annoying go to next problem okay maybe you do this ?? this seems so sus wtf am i doing let’s move on holy crap i only have 30 minutes left? oh my god how do you do this i swear this wasn’t covered in class wtf is this ????? FIVE MINUTES cries out the proctor holy crap. holy crap last minute calculation wtf is going on oh my god genuinely this might be the worst i have ever done on a test

at 12:06, time is up. the proctor comes to pick up our tests, joking “don’t worry, guys, i’ll rescue you”. weakly i say “i think i need rescuing”. i stand up out of my seat in a daze and walk over to jsin. “i think i’m cooked,” i say. “me too,” she says. we walk out of the testing room

“how do you do question 3?” i ask. she says some things that i had no clue about. wtf??? “i didn’t know that,” i say. “wait that was the only one i knew,” she says. we commiserate as we walk towards east campus. “can i get my lunch so we can eat together?” i ask. “sure,” she says. i get my leftover chipotle from the fridge and then we walk up to florey,⁠03 fifth east of east campus where she opens her chili. 

i try not to crash out too much. we talk about the arrangement jsin did last night instead of studying for the test. i hold in my crash out. she eats chili. she looks at her phone and says “oh there’s free cake in the lounge fridge!” we eat cake. it’s pretty good! strawberry and whipped cream… delicious. i arrange a time for us to draw together; i really want to do a self portrait because i haven’t drawn in a while

by now it is 12:44 and i am no longer losing it (at least, not as much). in high school i never saw the time left on the clock and panicked, but on this test that’s what i did. such a bad feeling. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

i’m in diffeq lecture now. i have a spanish in class essay at 2:30. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa