college, but faster

my body is used to getting an unholy amount of sleep. and by unholy, i mean i can complete a full week on 5 to 5 & 1/2 hours of sleep a night--with no naps. i need that weekend to catch up on sleep, but i can  do it. when you're at university, away from home, away from bedtimes, away from it's-10-pm-mom-and-dad-are-going-to-sleep-leave-your-phone-downstairs-and-go-to-bed…well, there's no rules. i make my own bedtimes. oftentimes, i stop functioning around midnight. even if i'm awake, i know i should be asleep, since i'm an early riser. i typically quit homework for the night around then. but then there's the option of friends. by that, i mean that everyone's hanging out and having a good time right outside my door in the common area. do i want to join them? yeah, i do. i want to laugh and have fun. so i usually end up staying up a little later. and then there's my bedtime routine, which takes a while since i have skin that hates me, and then ...

having knocked out my gen-eds in my junior and senior years of high school, i'm now a junior at a 4-year university at 18. which is probably common knowledge at this point, since that's why i decided to write the blog. but anyways. the reason why that's relevant is this--i never had and will never have the true freshman experience. now, that may seem small in perspective, but it actually has a lot of weight to it. freshman year of college is usually spent creating a network--whether that's through clubs, sports, getting to know your dorm floor, getting involved in greek life, or partying. classes are the second priority for most people. i've been working myself at full capacity for the past two (and a half, ish) years. at 16 i was taking on the workload of an 18 year old. and i didn't take it casually either (the curse of being a type-A person). when i moved to ASU, i had hoped i would be able to slow down a little--focus more on people and socialization, ...

non-fluorescent lights: like seriously. everything here is fluorescent. i hate it. it's unnatural. i love when the sun comes up and it shines through our window just because it's nice and warm light instead of this disgusting white-yellow hybrid light. actually  hot water: it's never hot enough for me in the dorm bathrooms. i want to enter the shower a human being and leave a skeleton because the water has burned the flesh off my bones. (i might have some unrealistic expectations for water temperature…) the option of family: this sounds weird, but let me explain: here, if i want to be social, i go outside to the common area, where the kids on my floor hang out. but none of them really know  me, and i don't feel like i fit in very well. at home, if i wanted to get away from homework, i'd just go downstairs to the living room and sit with my family, people i really feel comfortable with. and i miss that option. just good, home-cooked food:  see, you'd think...

to be completely honest: i decided to write this so i could avoid studying spanish. please save me from my incompetence at foreign languages. the other day i used the french word for 'eat'--during spanish class. i'm a disaster. one thing nobody tells you about accelerated university is how different your friend situation will be.  since i already did my gen-eds, i'm a junior by credit status. but all my fellow 18 year olds--all my 'friends,' the kids on my floor--they're just getting started. this means that i have far less time than they do, having to study constantly. i have an overwhelming amount of reading and, to be honest, not much homework. but i'm always working, and the kids my age seem to have a lot more fun than i do, simply because they have more time to have fun. they're more free, more wild. they stay up later and wake up later. i'm a first year, so i live in a dorm. i don't mind it. but my roommate has the time and ...