Double Lecture

The alarm starts chirping and I open my eyes to see sunlight streaming through the window. It's seven in the morning, which still feels entirely too early. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, having made it through most of a year of 8 AM classes. But there are some things that I'll just never get used to, and mornings are at the top of that list.

As I move to get out of bed, arms encircle me from behind. The reason I'm so bleary-eyed this morning holds me in bed. "Don't go," he mumbles.

"I have to. I have class."

"What class?"

"Double lecture."

Everyone knows what that means. Three hours of chemistry and physics, first thing in the morning. It feels like an outdated hazing ritual. Everyone's gone through it, and those who survived are still here. They don't make it much easier for those of us currently going through it. But it's a right of passage, a way of proving that you belong at this school.

"Skip it." But I'm already extricating myself from the bed and looking for my towel.

"I would if physics were first. I can't skip chemistry. I'm barely passing as it is." The second part's true anyway. But I wouldn't skip physics either. I haven't missed a class yet, and I'd like to keep that record up.

When I return from my shower, the guy has fallen back to sleep. He's a year ahead of me, and a CS major to boot. He probably doesn't have any classes until the afternoon. I decide to let him sleep and hope that he's gone by the time I get back from class. I get dressed and check my email while the water for my tea boils. Then I grab the thermos and my notebook and dash out the door.

On the way into the lecture hall I stop for a bagel. I'm a firm believer that breakfast is not to be skipped. Besides which, the act of pulling apart the bagel, smearing it in cream cheese, and gnawing away on the chewy bread will keep me awake until the caffeine kicks in.

I find a seat near the middle of the room and set up my notebook, pencil, and eraser. The bagel goes on top, and I take notes around it for the beginning of class. I do my best to write down everything important. It's not long before I'm almost completely distracted, playing dots with my friends and keeping a tally of every time the professor says "thus". She usually averages once a minute, though it can climb higher if she's particularly nervous. I think this is her first semester lecturing.

At 9:30 we get a brief break to stretch our legs and use the restroom. A few people use the opportunity to head back to their rooms, and I briefly consider joining them. But he's probably not in my bed anymore. Even if he is, I'm not sure I'd want a repeat of last night. Attraction so rarely survives the sober light of day.

We file back in to our seats when the physics professor arrives. Switching from organic chemistry to mechanics is old-hat by now. Though to be honest I'm just taking notes on auto-pilot at this point. It's a good thing I learned most of this in my high school AP course. I'm not sure my ego could handle the frustration of not understanding two subjects back-to-back like this.

Halfway through the second lecture, it feels like my brain is liquefying in my head. This professor has no interesting ticks to track, the games with friends have fallen off, and taking notes is growing more and more tedious. The professor is aware of this, and he grants us a short break to stretch our legs and shake loose the cobwebs. Then it's back for a truly torturous 45 minutes. I'd make a bad joke about time dilation if I had the brainpower.

Finally the lecture is over and I troop to the dining hall with my friends for an early lunch. Three hours of lectures have left our brains in desperate need of nourishment and the release of socialization. The semester is almost over. Just a few more weeks of double lecture before it becomes nothing more than a bad memory and something to tease next year's class about. It's not yet clear that this is only the beginning of a truly grueling workload.