8:00 a.m.—Lunge to shut off alarm. Loud noises in the morning are bad.
8:23 a.m.—Accept that it’s morning. Roll out of bed. Hair looks crazy. Oh, well, I’ll wear a hat.
8:25 a.m.—Both my roommates are up too! Getting to see Emily Boydston ’13 and Lee Rodman ’13 first thing makes the morning a little less dreary.
8:43 a.m.—Breakfast. Coffee. So waaaarrm.
9:00 a.m.—First class of the day, in ARH. How does my econ prof have so much energy?
9:55 a.m.—Head to Noyce. Its linoleum floors and fluorescent lights welcome me warmly. After four years, I know a lot of the professors and students who have classes here, so I get to banter with many people on my way to class.
11:50 a.m.—Finished with classes. Rush over to Outtakes and beat the line. Success. The student working Outtakes recognizes me, and gets me a coffee before I even have to ask.
12:00 p.m.—Back to Noyce, and I have a solid hour to get work done and send out those emails I’ve been putting off. Remarkably, I finish almost none of it. It’s not my fault there are so many cool people here to distract me!
1:15 p.m.—Start my work in the biology stockroom. I make up various solutions, plates (petri dishes) and other supplies, and clean all the dirty stuff that comes back from the laboratories. Talk with my employer, Kathy Miller. She is so sweet, and absolutely brilliant at her job—I wish I was half as organized as she is.
4:15 p.m.—Finished working. Now, if only I can find a good excuse to not start on homework until 5 when I can go to dinner. Thankfully, if I don’t have any emails, I can check the SEG (Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell) email account. Double the procrastination potential.
5:04 p.m.— Dinner. Like clockwork, my friends are there too. We keep the schedule of 70 year-olds. Getting to talk and spend time with my friends is definitely the highlight of my day.
5:30 p.m—SEG committee meeting for Community Outreach and Events. Though there are lots of various SEG meetings throughout the week, this one is definitely the most fun. It’s led by the brilliant Julie Bunt ’13, who not only is great at organization various fundraisers, but also sometimes brings delicious baked treats.
7:00 p.m.—Make myself available for a “drop-in” question-and-answer session for the second-year biology students I am mentoring this year. My mentees are fantastic and really appreciative. I know that second year for bio/chem/biochems major can be pretty stressful, so I hope I am helpful to them!
8:00 p.m.—If I have time, I go to swing dance lessons/open dance in Loose Lounge. Whenever I do go I always have a blast and it is a nice break from academics. Plus, dancing counts as exercise, right?
9:30 p.m.—Time to get serious about homework. My go-to study spot is the stats lab on the second floor. There is definitely a particular community of people who spend time there. In fact, Noah Most ’13, the other co-managing director of SEG, is there. We talk about SEG for a while before I decide it’s time to plug in my headphones and ignore him.
10:45 p.m.—Snack break! Anyone else need something from the Grill?
12:17 a.m.—I’m just gonna… put my head down on the desk for a few minutes.
12:40 a.m—Wake up, feeling remarkably well-rested, and power through a little more work.
2:00 a.m.—Bid adieu to the poor souls who are still hard at work, and head home at last.
