Athletes can each store about 2,000calories of energy in the form of glycogen. This gives them enough energy to run as many as 18 - 20 miles in a marathon. But marathons are longer than that. Once the glycogen is burned, the body turns to its fat stores, which do not burn quite as easily. This causes a dramatic, often sudden onset of fatigue, known as “hitting the wall.”
College students know about hitting the wall and that sense of fatigue, but in this case it’s not so much physical as it is mental. It usually sets in about mid-term for those on the semester schedule. I don’t remember where it surfaced when I was on quarters. That’s the blessing of Spring Break. It’s a chance to recharge, relax, gear up again for the final assault.
Every semester has its wall. Some, we sail over barely noticing them in our way; others, we drag ourselves over hoping gravity will kick in and take us down the other side. I’ve seen some students, like Marines on an obstacle course, who only made it over the last one because a compatriot was willing to reach down from the top of the wall and help pull them up and over.
We’d like to blame the wall on our circumstances (read that, “our professors”). There’s too much work, it’s coming too fast, expectations are too high. Don’t these people know I have a job, a life, a sport, a family, a ...whatever? But it’s never been about those things, or even about our professors. Like I said, it’s a mental thing, something we create in our own heads. Unlike runners who have burned up a physical supply of glycogen, we burn up an imaginary supply of academic stamina or brain power.
Today is the end of the 7th week of (God willing) my final semester, and I have hit the wall. Not even to the midpoint, I am tired, frustrated, bored. I can’t blame it on the course work. With a few notable exceptions, there’s nothing particularly challenging in my schedule. My work or family can’t take responsibility. No new obligations have been added to my plate. I have simply hit a wall of my own making, one that I have carefully built, brick upon brick.
Like a scene from a bad episode of “Twilight Zone,” I look ahead toward graduation, and every week that comes closer, the end appears farther away, more uphill, more unreachable.
But this, after all, is my own creation. It exists only in my mind.
I heard a man yesterday say that our lives are like a screenplay; each of us a protagonist in our own story. The good news is that we also get to be the head writer. We can sit back and allow others to insert pages in the script, or even write bad scenes and dialogue for ourselves. Or we can do a rewrite and choose a better outcome - one where the hero wins and all her dreams come true.
So I’m sitting here, up against my wall, thinking this post could get a lot longer. But I have to end it now. I have a screenplay to write.
I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing every day. Lately, I've been working on character sketches. Some of those will find their way here, in the form of individual comments to this post.
Comments
College students know about hitting the wall and that sense of fatigue, but in this case it’s not so much physical as it is mental. It usually sets in about mid-term for those on the semester schedule. I don’t remember where it surfaced when I was on quarters. That’s the blessing of Spring Break. It’s a chance to recharge, relax, gear up again for the final assault.
Every semester has its wall. Some, we sail over barely noticing them in our way; others, we drag ourselves over hoping gravity will kick in and take us down the other side. I’ve seen some students, like Marines on an obstacle course, who only made it over the last one because a compatriot was willing to reach down from the top of the wall and help pull them up and over.
We’d like to blame the wall on our circumstances (read that, “our professors”). There’s too much work, it’s coming too fast, expectations are too high. Don’t these people know I have a job, a life, a sport, a family, a ...whatever? But it’s never been about those things, or even about our professors. Like I said, it’s a mental thing, something we create in our own heads. Unlike runners who have burned up a physical supply of glycogen, we burn up an imaginary supply of academic stamina or brain power.
Today is the end of the 7th week of (God willing) my final semester, and I have hit the wall. Not even to the midpoint, I am tired, frustrated, bored. I can’t blame it on the course work. With a few notable exceptions, there’s nothing particularly challenging in my schedule. My work or family can’t take responsibility. No new obligations have been added to my plate. I have simply hit a wall of my own making, one that I have carefully built, brick upon brick.
Like a scene from a bad episode of “Twilight Zone,” I look ahead toward graduation, and every week that comes closer, the end appears farther away, more uphill, more unreachable.
But this, after all, is my own creation. It exists only in my mind.
I heard a man yesterday say that our lives are like a screenplay; each of us a protagonist in our own story. The good news is that we also get to be the head writer. We can sit back and allow others to insert pages in the script, or even write bad scenes and dialogue for ourselves. Or we can do a rewrite and choose a better outcome - one where the hero wins and all her dreams come true.
So I’m sitting here, up against my wall, thinking this post could get a lot longer. But I have to end it now. I have a screenplay to write.