Your eyes open up to your dim room just beginning to fill with light. As you come out of sleep just enough to form thoughts, the dread tightens around you: it’s Monday. And it’s not just a regular Monday; it’s a Monday where you know your schedule is booked. You have a full, mid-semester, manic Monday to tackle.
Good Morning!
You get up ready to tackle the day, even feeling a strong resolve to just get through the day. But, suddenly, as you look in the mirror, those little nuisances arrive.
Your hair lays wrong, your chin loses a battle with a protruding zit, you drop your toothbrush in the toilet.
You check your phone for a little scrolling therapy.
Your crush didn’t text you, your friend posted an embarrassing drunk video of you from Saturday, your professor uploaded scathing comments on your last assignment.
Surviving the Day
Onward and upward you go, dressing yourself in that cozy, oversized sweatshirt that always swaddles you in safety. Your AirPods die as soon as you walk out the door. You deserve a treat: hit the Paterno Library Starbucks before class.
Your coffee comes out that murky river water color, you spill half of it on that favorite sweatshirt (they’re out of napkins), you face that evil professor and they even use your assignment as an example to show the class what not to do.
Classes continue, but the stresses build up: midterms, essays, group projects, labs, problems you don’t understand, the dreaded Packback posts, one assignment after another.
You see your ex at the HUB, you trip and fall on the Pattee Mall, you get crushed shoulder-to-shoulder between freshmen on the White Loop. Even though it’s chilly outside, you’re sweating 10 seconds after sitting down at your desk in class.
Even your mom sends your call to voicemail.
Keep Your Head Up
After class, maybe it’s time for a club meeting, study session or a shift at your job. If you’re a VALLEY staff member, Monday night means going to a VALLEY meeting.
At the VALLEY meeting, you see smiling faces, you hear creative ideas, you feel the excitement about the new print magazine. Maybe your outlook on this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just needs a fresh coat of paint.
College, and life beyond, will always have the low points: bad grades, poorly-made coffees, overcrowded gyms, arguments with friends and loved ones and awkward encounters with past flames. Share those unpleasant foibles with your friends, laugh at yourself and resolve to make the next day better.
Even on those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Mondays during the most overwhelming time of the semester, you can enjoy the beautiful pieces of life to appreciate everywhere here in State College. It’s important to take academics seriously, but it’s ok, even encouraged, to not let yourself get bogged down in the first-world problems.
Walk to the Arboretum, treat yourself to a Berkey Creamery cone, call an old friend and commiserate in the stresses of college. There’s strength in numbers, so don’t get stuck in your own world. Remember to recognize the things you feel grateful for — friends, family, health and all the special experiences State College gives — and those stresses will feel lighter.
Good luck during this busy semester, VALLEY! For more campus culture content, follow @valleymag on Instagram!
