Close Shave

The feeling of bliss after exams have never felt better. I have become numb to that exhilaration as you write down your last point, partly because I never worked particularly hard to reach that moment. But today was different. Today I actually felt the joy of finishing up my last paper because the past 24 hours have been Hell.

I actually had two papers today - Subject A from 8-11am, and Subject B from 12-3pm. Subject A is harder than B, so for most of the time I only focused on A. When I finally started studying for B yesterday afternoon I realized with much horror that I would not be able to finish remembering all the points. I can recite points from Subject A without batting an eyelash, but for Subject B..... let's just say batting eyelashes won't help one bit.

In a twist of irony, the easier subject has become the harder! I had not much time left, and I had to take drastic action. I decided I had to sleep less so I can study more but staying up late is not my specialty so I planned instead to wake up early. That means I need to start sleeping earlier but that's a huge problem in itself for I have been having trouble sleeping before 12.30am.

In a move of desperation, I ate one of those small yellow pills they give you for colds. It makes me drowsy as hell so I'm using it as a sleeping pill. It's not healthy, I know, but I've done it before without consequence. And anyway, I am supposed to be recovering from flu so I have a valid reason to misuse drugs. It worked, and by 11.00pm I was dozing off to slumberland.

The effect of the drug wore off by 2am and I woke up momentarily, but luckily I managed to get some shut eye until 4.30. I got up, had some buns, and plowed through the notes. I managed to finish by 6am and got some extra rest before getting ready for Subject A's exam. That one went quite smoothly although it had its bumps. My concern now is squarely on Subject B.

I had about 1 hour to have lunch and revise. However, when I got back to those same notes, I had trouble recalling the points. This was terrible news as my early morning sacrifice did not pay off handsomely. I am very much against last-minute studying but here I am trying to separate one point from the other. I was getting nervous - what if the questions all came out from the parts I never read?

Thankfully I knew some self-motivation tricks. I put down my notes and said, "Enough." There is not enough time to remember them anyway. The important thing, I told myself, is to calm myself down so that the points will naturally come to me in the exam hall. I have gone through all these lessons before so I have the data in my brain, it's a matter of shutting up the voices in my head so I can listen to what it is saying.

And it worked. I was nervous up to the point I began writing my first answer. On my initial glance, I was quite upset because the questions were never what I had hoped. But as I tricked myself into thinking that everything will be fine, it became fine. Answers floated to the surface and I was writing like nobody's business. To be safe, I answered 5 questions instead of the required 4, just to be safe. This isn't my best performance, but I'll get my A nonetheless.

Now?

Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for me to PARTAYYYY!!!