Wiped out

As the days whiz past me with minimal work getting done, the one thing I am thankful for is that it’s the end of the quarter.

I feel like it’s been a good one—I took some new classes to get new ideas, I worked hard on the service part of my life to feel less like a taker and more like a giver in the grand scheme of things. I've become closer with old friends, I’ve had great fun learning new things, going to new places, and meeting new people.

The problem is that I’ve run myself so ragged doing all of these fabulous things that I’d like to just head home for Christmas right now and sleep for a week. Alas, my grades for this quarter hinge on the amount of work I do in the next couple of days, and I’m so exhausted that I seriously wonder if I’ll get it all done. Or at least, done well.

I have to: re-read another essay on gay theory (which is REALLY interesting, but it’s also really dense, so it’s hard to extract everything that I need that is relevant to my paper) review two of the novels we’ve read (or in one case, finish the last chapter) and find relevant material there and pull off a decent final paper (my saving grace is that the maximum is only six pages); figure out how to combine two related papers in one grand finale of a final project when it feels like I’ve wrung the subject completely dry; read up on about 200 years of music history and listen to music accordingly, and try and make sense of a bunch of music theory that is beginning to kick my ass. Thank God it’s my last class in the theory sequence; and write two-and-a-half concert reviews.

A lot to do, not a lot of time to do it, and dwindling energy (and I’ve been good! Going to the gym, getting enough [or almost enough] sleep, eating three meals a day, caffeine only before noon—why am I so damn tired?) are making me afraid for the end. I’ve done a lot of good work this quarter and I don’t want to ruin it because I had one week when I could barely stay awake. For at least two of these classes, the papers are worth one half of my grade. Yikes.