The phone blasts to the tone of TVXQ’s Break Up the Shell. She reaches out to the source of the sound, claps a hand over the offending thing to silence it. This exercise is repeated over the course of 5 times with another four different blaring tones. A sleepy eye opens blearily to the last round to catch a look of the time. A quick topple out of the comfortable nest of warmth in the blankets into the freezing cold jet of water from the shower jolts her into reality that so resembles her dreams.
Her bag is packed mechanically and methodically; in goes the stack of notes, the compilation of past year papers, out flies the lab coat and guide. Pencil case, water bottle, calculator. Shoves her feet into her sneakers before allowing her feet to carry her to school. A quick flash of student card at the gate and she’s in.
Today is the last day of school for the semester. Today will be the last day she has a Thinking Skills lesson. The last time before finals next week. What will be different today? Answer: nothing. No matter how last the class is, tradition dictates that it is as relaxed as ever. Some students chatter amongst themselves, some watch the teacher warily, some stuffed their ears with earphones and some don’t even come in. That ends our last class with her.
The next morning, it’s the weekend before finals. Same wakeup ritual, same set of tones set the night before. The process of preparing for school is replaced with a semblance of breakfast. The kitchen table is monopolized by her books and laptop from last night’s studying session. First subject of the day, Maths. Tick tock goes the clock.
One by one, the household wakes up in time for an early lunch. Next subject for the day, an attempt at Chemistry. Diagrams, structures, equations, definitions. The heat of the afternoon drifts on to evening. She gives up on Chemistry and starts on the Biology text. Members of the household gathers for another staring contest to decide where’s dinner for the day followed by an hour of television. Statistics paper is next. She stares in calm frustration at questions that she does not get. The night wears on accompanied by one cup of caffeine. The book joins the pile of fast gathering stack of material on the table next to her laptop. She drops into bed and waits for the next round of alarms signaling the start of another day like the one that just passed.
Throughout the day, one thing hammers into the back of her brain constantly: exam’s next week, exam’s next week, exam’s next week over and over again. Eating, sleeping, dreaming, walking from place to place, that is the one thing that is constant not only for one day but for the whole week.
That people, is how I find life one week before exams. We get only one shot in this and like jumping off a cliff, we either find that we can fly or we drop to the bottom. Good luck for the finals people and all the best!
By Zi Ying
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