Just in case you missed it, the Davidson College Library is now open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and so to celebrate (is celebrate the right word) I made the decision to spend 24 hours in the E. H. Little Library. The rules I set for myself are: I can leave for food, for academic commitments, and for my sanity, but cannot go to my room. I would totally (not) recommend trying this on your own.
12:51 PM I arrive in the library and set up shop at my usual table upstairs. I have all the necessities: a full bag of books, a blanket, and a bottle of wine. They say that the less you take the more you bring back, so I decided not to bring a pillow. And by “decided not to bring a pillow” I mean I didn’t have room in the two bags full of stuff that I brought for it.
12:52 PM I send this quick 140-character self-promotion out to the Twitter-sphere, because if you do something exciting and you don’t post it on social media, did you really do it? Not sure if this qualifies as exciting, but I’d still like some support.
2:53 PM I still haven’t done anything productive, but Victoria joined me at my table and I ate some celery with peanut butter, so I’ve got that going for me. I also just turned the Self Control app on, so goodbye Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Buzzfeed, and all online shopping sites for the next two hours. If you haven’t heard of the app, I would highly recommend. Good thing I still have my phone to distract me though!
4:01 PM SOS I should have also blocked Thought Catalog and TSM, but I have gotten a little bit of my paper due tomorrow, but only a little bit. Everything feels very normal since 4 PM is a usual time to be in the library. My hands are really cold. My hair looks too good today to be cooped up in the lib.
4:33 PM Victoria left to go to spin class, and Ned and Jack joined the table. Ned asked for a shoutout, so shoutout to you Ned!
5:14 PM I leave the library briefly to grab some dinner with Anne Elizabeth. This dinner could be the difference between sanity and breakdown.
6:15 PM Reentering the library from dinner and Ned and Jack are still at the table. Ned’s feet reek. He’s wearing flip-flops, so I can’t really tell him to put shoes on to cover the smell. Maybe I’ll move downstairs for a bit? I’m thinking of opening the wine.
6:27 PM Yup, the feet are too much. I take a quick lap around the library and as I pass by the fishbowl I see Ned leaving. Back to the table.
7:53 PM wow so sleepy much work such fun what i doing? I’ve been in here for eight hours and I haven’t gotten any real work done. Unless you count beginning an application for an internship that I don’t want as a mode of procrastination.
9:02 PM Here I am, just chilling in the SGA meeting for the Davidsonian, which, I might add, is not nearly as cool as Her Campus. Sorry Davidsonian, but I wouldn’t spend 24 hours in the library for you.
9:21 PM Emily drives me from Chambers to the Library in her golfcart. Thanks Emily!
9:41 PM Jack: “When do you think an appropriate time to start drinking in the library is?” Me: “9:41?” We realize that I forgot to bring a corkscrew, but Jack is outdoorsy and shit so he has a multi-tool with a corkscrew. He hid in the stacks to open the bottle just in case opening wine in the library isn’t socially acceptable/legal. But just saying, getting a citation for underage drinking in the library on a Thursday night would be pretty epic.
Jack hiding between the stacks to open the wine
10:18 PM Tinder tempts me, but I stay strong and keep working on my paper.
12:01 AM Although I am nowhere near done with my paper yet, I take a quick break to scout out places to sleep. Since base libs is dark and quiet I was hoping that there would be a couch down there for me to rest my head on, but unfortunately base libs is too serious for couches. Darn. I guess I’ll try and sleep in the Davidsoniana room.
1:00 AM I’m more than halfway there and I just finished my essay! #blessed that “Ode to Joy” isn’t playing right now. Or maybe not so blessed, since it might be nice if the lib still closed at 1 so I could be put out of this misery. Now for that annotated bibliography…
1:26 AM There’s one chick left in Davidoniana and she needs to leave cause I’m tired, but I also have more work to do fml fml fml.
2:06 AM Jack leaves. I call my friend Isabel because I know she’s still up. I listen to Anna Nalick’s “Breathe (2 AM)” since it’s 2 AM and I really just need to breathe.
2:33 AM The chick is still in Davidsonia, so I move to one of the back study rooms on the second floor and push the seats together in an attempt at making a bed. I wash my face and brush my teeth in the library sink—that’s a first for sure! Fingers crossed I make it through the night? (Spoiler alert: I don’t.)
2:40 AM I pack up my bags to leave the lib. I walk downstairs and realize that I’m not tired so I finish my anthro homework before I admit myself to failure. Ben Hartshorn keeps walking by me looking stressed. The overall atmosphere seems resigned to destiny.
3:07 AM This is probably one of the dumber things I’ve done at Davidson, right up there with that one time I tried to sleep in that place with that person on that fateful night during self-selection (@5thsouth2013, I hope enough time has passed that I can joke about this). I am ready to exit the library and never return…that is, until Sunday night when I’m back on that grind. Stay classy Davidson.