There are many reasons why students at UMass Amherst end up in a lecture hall or a classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8AM. For some of them it may be their first year and it was the only class available, or they needed that particular class for their major, or they just wanted to be in that class. Either way, the reason that someone at UMass Amherst takes an 8AM class is never that they are a morning person. It is safe to say that no one at this school is. Here are our most frequent thoughts during the most unpleasant hour (and fifteen minutes) of the day:
1. I definitely did not get enough sleep. I wonder if anyone notices that my eyes are twitching. Would it be weird if I asked the person sitting next to me for a sip of his coffee?
Or…
2. I attribute these good notes to caffeine.
There are always those days when you wake up early enough to drink a cup of coffee before your 8AM class, and you usually take the best notes on these days.
3. I wonder how many days it has been since some of these girls wearing baseball hats have washed their hair.
4. Is it possible to die of boredom?
My friends and I all agree that there is sometimes a point halfway through an 8:00 am class at UMass where you consider abandoning ship and leaving the class because you are so sleepy or just uninterested in what the professor is lecturing about. When you sit through this feeling, you realize just how strong self-control can be.
5. Maybe I should make a to-do list.
6. That person in the row ahead of me clearly has her life together because she is wearing workout clothes so early in the morning. Maybe I should go home after class and change into my workout clothes… Then again, maybe not.
7. I wonder if anyone will notice that I was too lazy to put on a bra underneath my sweatshirt this morning.
Hopefully, you can relate to at least one of these thoughts during an 8AM class at UMass Amherst. If you can, congratulations, you are not alone!