“Why would I do this to myself?!” I wondered seriously as I woke up to a Saturday 4:45 am alarm that I had set at my own free will. My friends and I had decided to use a precious morning of potential sleeping in to instead go on a sunrise Humpback hike. As I snoozed my alarm, I worried briefly for my own sanity and why I was deciding to subject myself to hiking through the woods in the dark, where there were bugs, cliffs to fall off of, and probably super angry bears.
As the end of the semester closes in, two things inevitably happen: finals prep (and therefore lots of stress) starts piling up, and also a thousand super fun events that pop up on your calendar. With Foxfield, formals, darties, and activities like the farmers market and Humpback hikes, it’s easy to want to do nothing but hang out with your friends and enjoy the warm Charlottesville weather. This conflict of interest (Have fun or study? Or do both, but don’t sleep?) isn’t just for college kids – there will always be moments in life where you’ll have to decide between staying in your comfort zone and doing the new, scary, highly-debatable thing. But in college, it can be especially hard to take chances if we feel like the tradeoff is good grades. I’m not here to tell you that you should blow off midterm week, rent a car, road trip cross country, and get a YOLO tatt, because I don’t think that either of us really believes that that’s a great plan. But, as anti-UVA as it is, I do think that it’s okay to sacrifice a little schoolwork or sleep from time to time if it means making great memories and valuable relationships. At the end of your four years at school, you’re not going to look back and remember the one test that brought your average down a couple percent (quelle horreur!), but you will remember that time that you took a weekend to visit your friend at another school, went to an impromptu concert, or as the boys of 1D like to say, ~danced all night to the best song ever~.
I hope to carry this as a rule with me through life. If you’re on the fence about wearing that outfit because its too alt/too mainstream/too 70s, or trying to get to know a professor because you’re too awkward/too shy (totally not talking about myself), take a page out of Nike’s book and Just Do It. You’re not going to remember another morning you got to sleep in, but you will remember the hike. Trust me, the sunrise was worth it.