Alright, folks – time for the season finale of our Semester One Blog Posts. It’s been a thrilling season with you all, despite the previous five episodes of questionable variety and quality – we’ve had our ups and downs, our fair shares of mental breakdowns, and our heartfelt (no pun intended) love letters to inanimate objects that may or may not be underrated.
With that, I think it’s time to dive into the final character arc of my semester one senior self with a few highlights that really sum up my experience so far.
Going in strong, folks – and a little out of pocket, but it’s also not entirely wrong. For those of you that know me decently well and those of you that don’t, Semester One Zea is not having The Best TimeTM. Between college apps, AP Chemistry, and just existing as a person, I’ve been teetering on the edge a lot.
Granted, these 22 ambiguous stages and mini hibernation period have somehow pulled me through navigating the FAFSA, memorizing VSEPR shapes, and figuring out how close I can get to taking an English major without going completely broke.
On that note, the mini hibernation period is a good segway.
Allow me to shamelessly plug the bimodal sleep schedule that I adopted to maximize my late-night productivity.
6PM – 9PM: write questionable reviews for the North Star
9PM – 11PM/12AM: take a nap. Or several.
11PM/12AM – 4AM: face off with AP Chemistry. Cry multiple times.
4AM – 6AM: go back to sleep. Have hyper-realistic nightmares about getting rejected from all my colleges.
Let’s look at some more highlights:
We aren’t gonna disclose what class this was in.
Moving on from that, quite frankly, somewhat tragic gallery of my atrocious sleep schedule, we’ll put the spotlight focus on the banal cause of this schedule: AP Chemistry.
Pre-Semester One Zea, who had no idea what she would be doing in her future regarding college, chose one of the hardest science classes in our school. Semester One Zea soon came to the conclusion that she most certainly would not be a Woman in STEM.
AP Chemistry, we’ve had our lows. Our hard times. Our lower lows. Our even harder times. And once in a blue moon, we have times that aren’t entirely terrible. If there’s a few things I’ve taken away from AP Chemistry, it’s this:
- My quota on mental breakdowns has GREATLY increased.
- When I think I know stuff, I usually don’t.
- For some reason, I’ve chosen a study group with people who teach me in the exact same way that my Asian parents teach me. So I end up crying a lot. For those of you with Asian parents who ever had to learn math with them, you’ll understand the struggle.
- Adrenaline, stress, and fear of failure in terms of grades work WAY better than caffeine to keep me awake at night.
- Those isolation cardboard cubbies to prevent cheating are REALLY good for when I start crying in the middle of a test and I don’t want anyone to see me.
Honestly, I’d love to add onto this post – even after the deadline for it. Semester One Zea, when I look back on you, I’ll remember this lovingly: you were a mixture of driven, frail, spontaneous, and questionably laughable. You went through like, three bomb threats, and although your way of coping with them could lowkey be mildly concerning. I’ll probably write some more once finals are over or are happening, because there’s an 80% likelihood I will end up crying in the middle of some of those finals.
That being said, here’s an “unofficial” wrap up of another text exchange that really captures my first semester energy.
This exchange was between my father and I. In a time of need, I was immediately reminded of why I’ve become the way that I am – in all the best ways possible, I love this.
December 1, 2021
I said that I would add onto this post, and I carry through with that promise. Here’s another highlight of Semester One Zea’s defining personality traits, this one being the trait where I lose my common sense at times. Shoutout to Ms. Hitzeman and Mrs. Parato for falling prey to these… tendencies of mine.
I’m not trauma-dumping on my English teachers despite the urges we all have to do so sometimes, but I do have a tendency to word-barf apology essays in Canvas comments and questionably-timed late-night emails. Whoever has me next semester, whether it still be Ms. Hitzeman or not, can absolutely look forward to this.
You crack me up. The screenshots are priceless LOL
Hi Zea,
As a first time commenter on your blog, I feel like I’ve entered a whole new world. Your bimodal sleep schedule is quite interesting. I’m inspired to give it a shot, but I probably wouldn’t wake up from my 9 PM “nap” until the next day. Also, I’m not sure if I could find the will to keep doing my homework at 3 AM. Most days I lose motivation to work by the time the clock hits 1. At that point, homework and tests suddenly don’t matter and my bed starts calling my name. I’m not in AP Chemistry but I can definitely relate to your thoughts on the class. I’m sure we’ve all had a class that is just an endless battle of stress and anxiety and tests. At least now you know a chemistry major may not be something you want to pursue. This whole blog post was very enjoyable for me, and put the stresses of school in a comedic light. Not that I enjoy laughing at others’ mental breakdowns, but the levity you bring to the semester is really refreshing, and makes me not worry as much about finals and grades and all that fun stuff.
Hey Zea!
First of all, GIRL you need to sleep more!! The more I read, the more concerned I feel over your sleep schedule oh my lord that is probably the worst sleep schedule I have ever seen anyone have. How do you even function?? You need 7-8 hours of CONSISTENT and QUALITY sleep!! Absolutely terrible. I know that I am one to talk but your grades should not take priority over your sleep and overall health!! Also, you have nothing to stress about because you are literally so smart and you will go wherever you need to go in life.
Anyways though, on a separate note, this was such an enjoyable blog post for me to read– I think the screenshots really helped demonstrate what you wrote about “in action” (which might not be a good thing because girl, an average of 2 hours of sleep is terrible!!). As always, I really loved your writing style, and the effortless humor that you incorporate, which really helped make this blog post so relatable, especially because I for sure feel and experience the same TrAuMa that AP chem brings, but I think I’m just dead inside at this point so maybe I feel it a little less <3. Anyways, moral of the story is please please take care of yourself but also this was such an amazing post and it was so entertaining for me to read it!!