A Week in the Life of a Harvard Student

Being a college student means enduring some of life’s greatest challenges (like a hard pset or walking 10 minutes to class), but it also entails celebrating some of life’s most wonderful gifts (i.e. complaining about said hard pset with friends). But, some days are just naturally harder to get through than others, so here’s a look at an average week in the life of a Harvard student.

Sunday Scaries

The classic. Everyone’s heard of them, everyone hates them, but no one can escape them. It’s the feeling you get when it’s 11 p.m. and you still have 200 pages of reading to do by 9 a.m. It’s the dread that pools up in your stomach as you doom scroll on your bed at 2 a.m., willing the sun to never come up. At least you have Sunday Sundaes.

Monday Melancholies

Okay, maybe willing the sun to never come up was a tad bit dramatic. No matter how hard we try, we can’t escape the return of classes (unless you don’t have class on Monday, in which case, who asked?) The Monday Melancholies are best represented by the 15 minutes spent in between each class staring at your GCal dissociating. I’m sure you can sneak in a nap… somewhere.

Tuesday Terrors

So you got past Monday. Congrats! Now you finally have something to write in that gratitude journal of yours. Wait… do you feel that? That sudden chill in the air? The Tuesday Terrors creep up on you when you least expect it, waiting to pounce during your most optimistic moments. It’s only Tuesday? As in the day after Monday? As in, there’s still most of the week left to get through? Maybe your gratitude journal will have to wait another day.

Wednesday Wearies

By Wednesday you’ve aged 80 years. There’s no denying it: the bags under your eyes are so prominent that strangers glance at you worryingly on the street, and you have a far-away look in your eyes as you reminisce on happier times (read: three days ago). On the bright side, you’re almost over the hump. It’s only going to get easier from here.

Thursday Delusions

You can almost taste it, crawling on your hands and knees, the sun beating down on you, sand gritty underneath your fingernails. Finally you reach your destination, tongue darting out for a quick taste, the first you’ve had in what feels like a century. Ah, alcohol. Maybe it’s not the smartest decision, but if you think about it, Thursday rounded-up is Friday and Friday rounded-up is Saturday, so why not go out and have fun on Thursday? Close enough, right?

Friday Freedom

Finally, the weekend! Well, basically. There might be a few meetings to attend, a few lectures to answer emails in, but at this point in the week you’re buzzing with so much excitement everything seems 10x more interesting than normal. You keep thinking about all the fun you’re going to have on the weekend. You’re going to try out new restaurants, hang out with friends, and really seize the day to finally burst that wretched Harvard Bubble.

Saturday Slump

Or maybe not because it’s 2 p.m. and you just woke up. Who knew that being so exhausted during the week would have repercussions for the weekend? There’s nothing you’d like more than to just laze around in bed all day, but alas, there be psets and assignments galore. Your grand weekend plans will just need to be postponed. There’s always Sunday, right?

And…*repeat*