Thursdays are a wacky day for me, to say the least; I have three classes back to back, which take up from 10:30 am to around 4:00 pm. Though this day seems intense to me every time I think about it, I have come to the realization that many other Tufts students experience similar schedules. So, I’ve decided to share how I get through my Thursdays, and I hope that might give some insight into a typical college student’s regular (albeit hectic) day.
Thursday mornings, I get up at 9:00 a.m. along with my roommate, and we journey to the common room in our suite to have breakfast. I make myself a nice coffee to wake up, throw together a quick breakfast (usually a simple PB&J, avocado toast, or some eggs), and then sit with my roommate (and usually some of our suitemates too) as we talk about the day we have ahead. The reason I talk about these mornings in detail is because they truly fuel me to get through the rest of my day; to me, it is so essential to spend time enjoying the company of my friends and having a relaxing morning before I dive into classes.
Then, the wackiness begins at 10:30 am as I head to my Parent-Child Relations class, which is held in-person this semester. I grab my seat next to one of my friends who also happens to be in the class, and we begin listening, discussing, and taking notes. After the class ends at 11:45, my sprint up the hill commences as I rush to my 12:00 Intro to Finance class, which is also in-person, but just so happens to be all the way across campus from my first class. Finance ends at 1:15, after which I begin my second sprint of the day, this time downhill. You see, my next class of the day (Psy 112, called Biological Bases of Psychopathology) is virtual, which means I take it from my dorm; it begins right at 1:30, once again leaving me exactly 15 minutes to get back from the top of the hill to my downhill dorm. For my Psy 112 class, the Zoom part of class ends at 3:00, but I then complete asynchronous material for the class until 4:00 pm.
So there you have it folks… my entire day of classes on Thursdays is spent running back and forth across campus. At 4:00 p.m. when my classes are finally over, I am so excited to eat an actual meal and just relax my mind for a bit (Zoom fatigue and long days really hit all at once sometimes). A silver lining to this schedule is that it is completely over by dinnertime, and I often make plans to eat dinner outside with friends, where we can appropriately socially distance, but still actually enjoy each other’s presence face to face. What’s my main takeaway from my typical Thursday? I would say that it represents how college life can be really hectic and busy sometimes, but at the end of the day, you get to stand back and really appreciate your Tufts life: your education, your friendships, and the overall knowledge that everyone is truly in this experience together.