It’s currently 3:20am on a Friday morning, and I’m supposed to be writing an essay. Clearly, I’m not.

To be fair, I’ve been here since 8pm, mind mapping, making lists of points and reading books for research, trying desperately to make my thoughts somehow synthesis into a cohesive piece of writing for my essay writing class; I’ve made progress but it’s slow going.

Why exactly am I up at this hour, blogging instead of curling up in my bed? Tonight is the “Long Night Against Procrastination” (LNAP) event hosted by my university. LNAP is an event held at universities all over that encourages students to buckle down and get things done, with Academic Advisors and Writing Assistants to help along the way. Personally, I’m not a huge fan or believer in “pulling all nighters”. Honestly, I don’t think they are an effective way to study or get work done because your brain just doesn’t operate at it’s full potential when you’re sleep deprived. Unfortunately for me, I’m a sucker for interesting events and programming so the idea of a bunch of students coming together and staying up all night, writing papers, studying together, and eating free food was too much to resist. Not to mention they have cool stuff going on every hour to give ourself breaks. We just came back from a walk around campus and in the next few hours there is mediation, colouring and even therapy dogs coming to visit
before we have breakfast and prepare to face the real day.

I wasn’t planning to stay all night. I really wasn’t. I have class at 8:30 tomorrow and while my paper does need to get done asap, I have the weekend to work on it. But then I got asked to participate in a study for Human Kinetics class about our abilities when we are tired. A few guys had set up a station a couple feet behind me and I was listening to them on and off all night do some kind of interview or test with various people. They finally approached me but I had to commit to staying until at least 7am to be retested. After I agreed, I was shown a board covered in double digit numbers and the another board with completely random pictures. I had a minute each to memorize and then try to recall as many of them as possible. I actually did really well and beat the record for most numbers memorized. The trick will be doing well again in a few hours!

I am seriously feeling the exhaustion already. I can barely read let alone come up with critical thinking or academic writing. I figured I would take a break from reading about political correctness and write a bit about my experience with a real university all nighter. At this point, my commitment to their project (and my own stubbornness) is the only thing keeping me from crawling back to LeBlanc and going to sleep. Worship music, coffee and more writing it is! And you know what, I think I’ll post this right now so I can look back at it when I’m more rested and see if it’s below my usual quality haha. Please pray for productivity and my sanity since clearly I am crazy! I’ll keep ya posted

Until next time,

• Sam 🙂