I woke up this morning feeling exhausted. I didn’t get much sleep last night because I was busy getting flogged by my books, literarily. I couldn’t move my legs, neither could I move my hands and all other parts of my body. My body felt heavy and numb. I was awake and conscious of my environment. I could move my eyes, it was the only part I could control. I kept rolling them, trying to figure what was happening. I felt trapped in an endless dream, unable to wake up or move. It is difficult to explain how I felt at that point. All I know is that I wasn’t frightened. I don’t know how sleep paralysis works, but it felt like I experienced one.
I closed my eyes and after a few minutes, I gained control of my body. A part of me is telling me that I didn’t really experience the sleep paralysis stuff and that it was just my mind playing pranks on me. Regardless, if decided to wave it off and not consider it a bad thing since sleep paralysis is a normal part of the sleep cycle. I turned my phone on and almost immediately I got a broadcast message from my class governor : “class updates; 9am- 11am and 12pm- 2pm.” I checked the watch, it was about 20 minutes past 8. I rushed into the bathroom, had my bath, dressed up and trekked to school. I got to the lecture room at exactly 9:15. Luckily, the lecturer wasn’t around yet.
I sat down at my desk, and my mind drifted off to another place. It was as if I had been transported to another dimension, a world where I was all alone. I looked around my familiar classroom, but there was no one there. I whispered to myself, "It's that time of the year again," and then repeated it aloud: "It's that time of the semester." This is the time of year when students burn late night candles and fry their brains. A time when students go hours, reading, cramming, and memorizing without eating. Sometimes, students forget to eat until their body starts shaking and their stomach starts biting.
I really detest this period. I mean, who doesn’t? The most annoying thing is that when people see my the end product (result), they’d be jealous, but what they do not see is the amount of hard work and sacrifice that goes into achieving good results. Nothing worth having comes easy. What worries me the most is that unlike my previous exams, I felt intense pressure to study and cover all my topics, but this time, I don't feel that pressure. Sometimes, I read overnight, and sometimes I just sleep not caring about the topics I’m yet to cover. I honestly don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
“Bang!” Suddenly, a loud thud brought me back from THOUGHTSVILE. The lecturer was already in class. After the class, students rushed over to the library to fry their brains. “It’s that time of the semester” I whispered to myself.