The Life and Times of Students Life with Time
Albert Einstein once said time is irrelevant. Now, over 75 years later, I am beginning to question his credentials. For Einstein could not have gone to college if he believed this to be true, or maybe it’s that German colleges are set up different than American colleges. Either way, for the 21stCentury college student, time is very relevant.
The days are filled with class, work, and homework. However, homework is the only time in the students’ lives that does not have a designated time period. In fact, one may only be able to do homework when they are busy. Does that make sense? It may not, but that is how college life seems to work itself out. In this grand expanse of time, each portion of the day is scheduled out. However, the tasks become so close that eventually all 24 hours of the day are taken up. The only available time to work on said assignments is during the most menial of tasks.
Laundry is the easiest of these menial tasks. Put clothes in. Add soap. Wait one hour, and repeat. This is one task that allows time to complete others that would otherwise mess up the perfectly laid schedules. But laundry is only once a week at best. You can’t read and vacuum, nor can you commute and write a paper, and hopefully none have tried. To sum up, the college student is not only forced to deal with college issues, but the time consumed in menial, everyday tasks. The college life is simply time consuming.
Now, one generally wakes up between an hour or a half hour before class. If the latter is true, the average student does not allow themselves time to eat, which is most often the case. In the professional or “adult” world, people give themselves three times a day to eat. College students eat whatever they can in the time that their schedule has allowed.
The average class is one hour long, however, half the time, they can go up to 90 minutes. This is generally followed by another class ten minutes later. The student has the ability to pick and choose their classes as they wish, but the necessity for some classes is unavoidable, and the ability to make the college change the scheduled class time is nothing but a mere wish that only Freshman still have.
Now the ever growing amount of homework and class schedules cannot be blamed directly on the college. Though it is simpler to believe. The biggest problem lies in the need for balance. Professors have conflicting schedules that must be carefully ironed out. So, morning and afternoon classes are built not only on the Professor’s schedule, but also the need to balance certain classes in specific semesters. In all reality, that seems oddly fair, but one must realize that the Professors have graduated, and then returned to this Hell. The place after Purgatory, but before burnt out Christmas lights. This is where they’ve chosen to return, so can we shift some blame to them? Probably not, but I digress.
As we move on with the day, there is the realization that it’s noon, you just haven’t noticed because you’ve slept half the morning away, whether you’re in class or not. Now you may eat. But it can’t be that simple. Can it? In fact, it’s not. Clubs and organizations use this time to meet. If God is on your side, you have time to run to the cafeteria and grab food to go. In there you will most likely see the College President laughing the lunch hour away. What right does he have to be so relaxed? At least he tries to relate to his students. But if he isn’t losing half his meal while trying to shove the rest in his mouth before darting off to the next activity, will he ever relate?
As the average day progresses, afternoons get weird, and it seems this is where schedules begin to vary. As a member of the Mass Communications Department, I have personally viewed the KMSC DJ schedule. The schedule is picked over by the students as the only time that they are available. You probably aren’t surprised to learn the majority of DJ shifts happen in the afternoon. However, the 95% of student DJs do not take up more than one hour on the air. Because, who has the time?
While some are busy doing extra curriculars such as these, others are now moving forward with their afternoon classes. And, no college student wants to work in the morning, and very few do so during the week. So, in some cases, the remainder of the afternoon is spent working. Now, because Sioux City effectively closes down at 10:00 P.M, students will often work from late afternoon until 9:00 or 10:00 at night.
“I have both an on campus job and an off campus job,” says Morningside Senior Madison Schueth. “Most weeks I work ten hours or more, but this week I am working around twenty.”
This struggle is real for many Morningside students. What’s more deceiving is the work schedule itself. Living on campus, and hitting every red light, it could take as long as twenty minutes to get to the main shopping district of Sioux City. Now, combining the time it takes for a student to walk from their residence to their car could take five to ten minutes. This can be said from the movement from car to business. If we double this, as one does follow the same path home as they did earlier in the evening, we would get nearly an hour of time wasted in commute.
When they arrive at their homes or dorms, they are immediately confronted with the realization of homework. The college professor will usually demand twenty pages be read by the next class period. This isn’t unreasonable. However, twenty pages times four classes in two days equals ridiculous. Madison, for example, works on a Sunday night. She is also a double major in Psychology and Theatre. That being said, when she gets home, she is confronted with a mountain of homework. When we spoke on a Monday night, she had “legitimately, not slept” in nearly 36 hours.
The average student does not have these issues, however, many students are double majored, or have minors. This runs the possibility of having five, or God forbid, six, classes in a semester. There is also a high amount of students that are involved in sports. Sporting events and practices then take up two to four hours of the students’ day.
Now, the grand majority students are in clubs. This includes athletes, the simpletons with only a single major and minor, or emphasis, and the vast amount of students with double majors Even these people find time to be in two or three different campus organizations. Madison Schueth, is the Vice President of both Alpha Psi Omega and Alpha Omicron Pi. Others, have even more organizations to deal with.
“I spend five hours with one group, three and a half hours with another group, and another two hours for a third group,” comments Morningside Senior Brock Bourek. Brock is a double major in Theatre and Art Administration with a minor in Religious Studies. He participates in Alpha Si Omega, Phi Mu Alpha, Sinfonia, and College Choir. Not only is he a part of these groups, and a couple more, but he is an officer in nearly each organization. Did I mention that he works as well? This is truly getting exhausting at this point.
When the student, unless you are like Madison, sleeps they must begin with a ritual. This is the time before you finally crawl into bed and close your eyes. This time is used to decompress from the day, for, if you do not, you may spend hours tossing and turning. Now, if you are one of those people who can fall asleep right when your head hits the pillow, please know that you are hated.
Finally, there is the weekend. But, wait… there’s more. Saturday is one of two days where the average college student has no classes to attend. However, this is the day of the weekend that the largest number of businesses are open. So, the chances are high that you will work this day away because you need to pay the college to take all of your time. Consider Madison and Brock in this category as well.
Saturday night is the night to make things happen. You can’t do homework now, not when you are at the only time in this God forsaken week that you don’t have to wake up before the sun. I’m not suggesting throwing party, though they could be fun, but one must do something out of the everyday world to keep their sanity. So, Saturday night is usually spent in front of a TV.
Finally, it is Sunday. This day is spent on homework, unless of course you have light classes or did your homework on Saturday night (Please note that you too, are hated). And so the day drifts by, under the stress of homework, or more likely, the anxiety of procrastination. Then, on Sunday night, you finally see your bed. Let all the stress drift away for eight more hours. First of course there is the terrible realization that you have no social life because of the time sucking vortex that is the college life. Then there is the overwhelming fear of what lies ahead.
Then there is calm. You realize that you do have friends and a social life, because they are just as exhausted as you. So, you can all be exhausted together. And of course there is the realization that this time consuming monstrosity will lead you to an, overall, happy and successful life. So, you begin to embrace the week to come, for it will be like the week that passed, which you finished with flying colors.
With the fear disappearing, you surrender to the sweet release of sleep. But before you finally nod off, you go over what tomorrow will be, and what you should wear to combat the ever-changing Iowa weather. And you open your eyes in the realization that you still need to do laundry. Fuck.