Strangely Different
The one where sleep took over
I reckon it was 9-10PM, I don’t recall. Usual night at the office, usual time getting my nicotine fix. But I wasn’t alone tonight, a colleague decided to join me and I rolled one of my Mac Barens for her. Strangely sweet aren’t they.
Small talk. We spoke of weariness mainly. I participated but truly, I don’t feel it. My displeasure wasn’t tiresome hours. She briefly mentioned about school days while younger, working at Starbucks juggling day and night shifts with school in the middle, daily. That the years have caught up and it wasn’t the same as before when you could burn hours after hours and not feel the way it felt these days, especially tonight.
She should be around 26-27? I have almost 10 years on you my friend. It really isn’t the age issue. The human body has an amazing way of being adaptive but the human mind however, does not. Your line of work has changed and increased dynamically. The pressure of quick and dirty turnarounds have been reduced to the mere units of seconds. The body gets stronger with repetitive stress but the mind diminishes should you treat it the same. Never forego sleep and say “I’ll make up for it over the weekends.” You cannot store sleep. Period.
Her recollection relocated myself to a different time, when I was at the same age, except I worked at Planet Hollywood. I share her sentiments. I worked shifts till 3AM and back to school at 8AM the next morning. This was what being college kids meant to most of us. Academia melding society, at the threshold of growing up.
No it wasn’t cool and I damn near killed myself. I used to drag a giant phone book around and slept under tables during tutorials or at the back of lecture halls with it. I did the same for the most part of my adult life, living the same time cycle. Live, life, love with 4-5 hours or shutdown time. In overdrive. I still do, lady 3AM still writes with me. The pleasure of her company to complement my pain.
This is totally not recommended. You will fail miserably when you try to squeeze too much into too little. Take the advice and get some sleep.
