I had two exams this morning. Here is the story of one of those exams.
My roommate's friend Lauren just entered the room. She is in my Earth Science class and we normally sit together. It is a Rocks for Jocks course,* an easy A. Well, it would be an easy A if you 1) had any interest in rocks, or 2) were even slightly competent in anything relating to science. I do not fit either of those qualifications. I hate rocks and I am not just lousy at science, I am terrible, atrocious, beastly, cursed, horrid, abominable, DREADFUL.
As if that weren't enough. This is the conversation that just took place.
Me: What did you think of the test?
Lauren: *shrug* Eh.
Me: I thought it was awful. I didn't know anything about the different types of volcanoes. It didn't say we needed to know the different types of volcanoes on the study guide!
Lauren: Yes, it did.
Me: Oh.
Lauren and My Rommate: *hysterical laughter*
I laughed along with them but inside I was seething, at myself mainly but also at my roommate, who was laughing maliciously at my stupidity but five minutes ago admitted that she forgot she had a quiz today and didn't study at all.**
Here's the thing. I honestly don't care about volcanoes. I don't care about rocks. I could have gone my whole life blissfully ignorant about such topics as plate tectonics and the lithosphere. I have never found a subject more uninteresting than geology has proven to be.
My professor, on the other hand, LOVES volcanoes. I think she would marry a volcano if she could. Every day when we come into lecture she has on either a video about volcanoes or a song about volcanoes. If I have to listen to Jimmy Buffet sing "Oh, I don't where I'm a-gonna go when the volcano blows!" one more time I might die. I didn't think it was possible for a person to love volcanoes. I mean, of all the things to love. Volcanoes? Really?
And not just volcanoes. Rocks, too. And minerals. Do you know what a basalt is? I do.
But, oh how I wish I didn't.
Today was not a good day. I woke up at 5:30 AM to finish studying. I sat in the study lounge and stared at my notes. Then, at 7 o'clock the dining hall opened. I can't eat much in the early morning or else I feel sick but I munched slowly on a bagel as I continued to stare at my notes. The dining hall was practically deserted. It was so quiet I could actually hear the newscaster on the TV. There were only a few other poor souls scattered among the tables, all with notebooks open in front of them.***
Despite the calm, I couldn't focuse. I was restless and I hadn't even had my usual three cups of extra-strong coffee.**** Later that morning, I sat in a different food court down on main campus. I had just finished my first test and had an hour and a half to study. Instead I filled a whole page of my notebook with the mantra, "I can make it through today. I can make it through this day." I just kept repeating it to myself over and over in my head. If I didn't say it to myself, if I didn't write it fifty times, I don't think I could have made it through the day.
The punchline? The day isn't over yet. I still have an 8 page paper to write. It's worth 20% of my final grade.*****
*I'm not a jock but I still suck at science, ok? Don't judge.
**Have I mentioned on here how much I hate my roommate? Oh, only about a million times. What kind of person talks shit about you with her friends when you are sitting in the room? A bitch aka my roommate. Just because you put your desk as a wall to block me out doesn't mean I can't hear you when you're on your side of the room. And it's Andy Warhol, idiot. (Did I say I wasn't going to ramble about my roommate anymore? Oops.)
***Klim, like milk spelled backwards, sat a few tables away. It brightened my morning a little bit.
****A decision I would later regret.
*****Cue the laugh track.
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