Is sleep for the weak?

Everyday, I see this girl with her silver Thermos.  She pulls off the lid, which serves as a cup, and pours herself a brown liquid.  There’s an unmistakable odor to it.  Yeah, it’s coffee.  She sits there in class and drinks the cup she poured.  I then think to myself, “wow, she must work really hard.”  I mean honestly, even if it’s an 8 AM class, there has to be a reason she needs the coffee to keep her awake.  She must be working tirelessly on her work, studying to who knows what hour.  She obviously needs some help to stay active, which is what the coffee hopefully provides.

I was reading this article on the new University Medalist.  The line that stood out to me was, “with careful time management that doesn’t over-allot hours for sleeping, Chow said, newcomers to UC Berkeley can do well academically and still have time for fun.”  In other words, it means long hours and working tirelessly towards your goals.

By reading what I just wrote, I may be sending a message that the end result of being that person with the Thermos of coffee who works into the night for oh so very long will make you the new University Medalist.  Maybe it will.  Maybe it won’t though.

I now think about the grad students who do all sorts of research at this university and also teach here.  They spend a lot of time in labs, sometimes even sleeping there.  Imagine the hours of sleep they must have lost in order to get to a great grad school like Berkeley.  I think about my Chem GSI, who’s actually an undergrad senior going to Michigan for med school next year.  Never got anything lower than an A- here and he plays intramural basketball.  Pretty cool, though he admits he regrets never having a girlfriend.

I mean honestly we can’t attribute one factor to be the one cause of everything.  Perhaps, it’s good time management.  Or making sure you did something you were truly interested in.  How about actually making time for fun?  Cutting back on things like relationships and other activities so that you can focus on your studies more?  Or perhaps, it’s just the simple drive to succeed.  I don’t know which one it is, but a lack of sleep probably isn’t it.  Now speaking of sleep… (Yeah I know I jumped around a bit in the conclusion, but whatever.)

Extra, Extra, Read all aboutA real threat to expression?-An LA Times article how Micheal Moore twisted the truth about his new movie, and how Ted Koppel beat the Sinclair Broadcasting company.  (see these extras have absolutely nothing to do with the topic)

Help save the rain forests by just clicking your mouse

3 Replies to “Is sleep for the weak?”

  1. I seriously think it’s just time management. I bet if we all had good time management, 95% of us wouldn’t be as sleep deprived as we are.

    Btw, thank your friend for helping me with my BA10 paper =) Actually, I was seriously thinking of doing something along the line of his idea, do you think he’ll be interested?

    Btw, good luck on your finals and we should hang out before you leave for the summer! =)

    1. Not managing my time well

      Yeah time management is extrememely important. Part of time management, I think though, is restraint. Trying not to sleep too much, hang out with friends too much, etc.

      Which idea? The artist one, the wool thing? Yeah either one he’d definetley be down.

      Yeah totally, I’m leaving on the 22nd. We’ll work something out in between.

      1. Re: Not managing my time well

        Yeah, definitely restraint, sometimes things are just too tempting ^_^

        Hmm, not the wool one, but the one he did for his BA10 paper?

        Sure, tell me when you’re free. I’m free on Monday but definitely not on Tuesday-Thursday, so yeah, Friday and afterwards =)

Comments are closed.