Up All Night: Essay Cramming by the Hour

I managed to escape the curse of the all nighter until my third year (unless the Royal Wedding counted). It hasn’t been easy, and it’s definitely been a curse, but I’ve learned that there seems to be a riveting hourly breakdown that follows in what all nighters for the average student looks like. A window into what essay cramming in one night is like. Warning: the following will feel all too familiar, unpleasant, and may bring back some painful reminders. 

7pm: Fresh out of dinner with coffee(ssssss) in hand, and (half) your research done, it’s go time!

7:30pm: JSTOR spree! If only there weren’t so many pdfs setting up camp on your desktop…maybe you should have started sooner.

8:00pm: Your friend decides to come join you aka someone to watch your things while you momentarily leave the room every hour to regain sanity

9pm: Outline is done, now for a Facebook break!

9:45pm: Your friend decides to leave…weakling…

…You shoot a disapproving look as you resume you tweeting about the trials and tribulations of being a student.

Midnight: Bring out your coffee machine, time to start draft #1.

2am: Wait…your thesis..WHERE DID THE THESIS GO? What is my thesis?

2:30am: Draft #2 begins….scour wait-lists for possible writing centre appointment. Will accept anything up to an hour before deadline at 10am.

4am: Still on draft #2. Time for a 20 minute nap.

6am: THIRD DRAFT IS DONE. Three is all you need…right?

6:45am: The sun is coming up. How long has it been?

7am: Coffee bean supply becomes non existent.

8:00am: Citation time!

8:15am: Whaaa? WHY is Purdue Owl down? NO! NOT NOW! OF ALL THE TIMES.

9:30am: 30 minute nap before class.

10:00am: SUBMIT10:10am: Crawl back into bed, tell yourself you’ll never do this again.

-Vahini

4 comments on “Up All Night: Essay Cramming by the Hour

  1. Soo true… Hopefully it doesn’t happen this week *Looks at calendar with 3 essays due within the next two weeks*
    Damn…

  2. I thought this was going to be a whole essay about all nighters and then I read the first point and i’m honestly in the EXACT SAME situation hahahaha!!! My entire desktop is open with JSTOR pdf articles. I now know i can relate to everybody else when it comes to writing night before essays …

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