How I almost missed my economics final
How I almost missed my economics final
This is a funny story from my first year of university. I figured I should write stories like this down so that I don't forget about them in the future.
The Story
Let me set the stage. It's Thursday, December 18th at 7pm. Tomorrow is the last day of my first term of unviersity before a sweet, juicy, and well-deserved winter break. There's one problem though, I have one exam left standing in my way. My microeconomics final was scheduled for Friday, December 19th, the VERY last day of the final exam period. I guess UofT really loves me because they wanted me to stay for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Even worse, my exam was a 3 hour exam at 9am in the morning. This situation is already terrible.
So I devise a genius plan to wake up in time and crush my exam. My 2am - 12pm sleep schedule was not built for this, so I meticulously reasoned from first principles. Melatonin was too risky, even at 7pm, but if I stuffed myself with dining hall food I would naturally get sleepy! Brilliant.
So that is what I did. I put my phone in my left pocket, my keys in my right, and I went across the street to my dining hall. Leveraging my all-you-can-eat meal plan I ate 1.5x the dinner I normally do and promptly went to bed at 9pm.
Except I forgot to consider one critical factor. I'm a moron
I sat in bed for 4 HOURS trying my very best to fall asleep. I tried sleeping on my left side, my right side, pillow between my legs, upside down. Anything you can name I tried. Knowing I had to wake up at 8am (I shower in the mornings) made things worse. Every minute I didn't sleep was less memory consolidation, more tiredness, and less cognitive function tomorrow. And anything less than 8 hours of sleep is devastating for me personally.
It took until 1am until I decided, "if I'm a moron, might as well be moronic". So I scroll Instagram reels for an hour, thinking maybe it'll help me fall asleep eventually. At 2am I try sleeping again. Nope. I toss and turn in bed for another hour.
At 3am, I gave up. I decided that at this point, it would be smarter (and it would probably make me less tired in the morning) if I just stayed up all night instead. I could use that time to study, or even work on personal projects if I didn't feel like it. It seems reasona-
BANG. I fall asleep. awesome.
My alarm rings me awake at 8am. Super tired after <5 hours of sleep, it's painful to wake up. So I decide that snoozing the alarm for 15 minutes can't hurt.
...
All of a sudden, I'm at home. I'm with my friends playing board games and having the jolliest time in the world. We're talking about university when my sister walks down the stairs and asks my how my economics exam went. So I start explaining.
I go through the whole story that you just read, pretty much word for word. 10+ minutes of detailed storytelling. I'm telling them about my genius plan, my incredibly functional body and sleep schedule, my reel-scrolling, and how I finally woke up at...
WTF?
I didn't take my exam?? How am I at home???
I start PANICKING. I'm asking myself, how TF did you make it all the way home (1 hour 30 commute) from the city of Toronto without taking a literal final exam. WTF am I gonna do now that I missed my exam?? How will I explain this to my parents.
As I begin to express this to my friends... BAM and I jolt awake.
Oh my god. I was dreaming.
Is my exam grade still recoverable??
Before I can thank any god that may or may not exist, I frantically check the time on my phone, praying that if I missed a part of my exam I can still recover. And on the top of my phone screen it says:
8:15AM
Holy shit.
Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure the technique of recalling how you got somewhere is a way to realize you're in a dream and potentially start lucid dreaming. But I did it entirely accidentally.
So I jump out of bed, change into my bathrobe as fast as possible, run to the communal showers, and quickly shower.
When I'm walking back to my dorm room, I reach into the right pocket of my bathrobe where I usually keep my dorm keys and... Bruh. They're gone.
So I'm going to have to walk in the -20 degree, snow covered Canadian winter across the street to the main dorm building, in nothing but a bathrobe and slippers, just to get a new key (that I have to return in 30 mins).
Thankfully, I check my left pocket and they're there. ???. IDK.
No more plot twists. I eat a quick breakfast and crush my exam. 98% cuz I'm goated.
And that was the story of how I almost missed my economics exam. Hopefully that doesn't happen again in the next 3 years of university.