Sleeping Beauty

Hi everyone! I hope your week has been going smoothly!

Okay, so first I must explain the title of this blog! Basically, as many can relate, I took sleep for granted when I was a child and a teenager and now my body is trying to make up for all those missed opportunities for sleep. You know, those times our parents tried to get us to bed by 7:30 pm and we refused!

Now, I can barely stay up past 8 pm most nights where I am so exhausted! I can lay down for a 20 minute nap and wake up FOUR hours later! And a lot of my friends can attest to that! It's just...my body needs rest.

So this story is about how my need for more than TEN hours of sleep almost cost me my A in my Sociology class during my Acadia University days.

As many of you know, I have a BSc Psychology degree, but what you may not know is that I minored in Sociology. There was this one Sociology professor that I loved and admire SO much that I just had to take EVERY Sociology course that she taught!

Let's call her Linda. Linda and I really admired each other. She admired my work ethic as a student, and I admired her teaching strategies as a professor. Every assignment and every midterm I completed for her I received top marks. Linda, even tried to persuade me to take on a double major in Psychology and Sociology, and an honours thesis in Sociology because she was confident in my abilities.

Honestly, I must admit that I regret not taking her advice. But, oh that hindsight is a wonderful tool to have, so let's continue.

It was the end of the semester and I had five exams to study and prepare for, for final examinations. My first exam was with Linda. The night before I had pulled an all-nighter, and I didn't get to go to bed until about 5 am...my exam was at 9 am.

Now, some of you may or may not know that, usually for final exams there is a 30 minute grace period upon which you can enter the room to write your exam. Once the 30 minutes has lapsed, you are no longer able to write the exam and of course you will receive a failing grade for the examination.

Now, here's what happened to me.

All I remember was waking up with so much drool on my arm (don't act like you haven't been there!) to the sound of EXTREMELY loud banging on my dorm room door, and the sound of my name being shouted as if the world was coming to an end.

As I moseyed up out of bed to answer the door, I was met by a very concerned Fritz. His words struck then biggest nerve in my body. "Darry! Do you know what time it is?!", he asked, to which I replied, "No". Fritz said, "Darry, I've been calling your phone for the past 45 minutes! It's 10:30, Darry!".

Let me tell y'all! When he said that, it was like all the sleep was knocked out of my body! And do you guys know what I did? I cried. Yes, I broke down and cried as Fritz went into extreme panic mode on my behalf.

He said, "Darry, Linda said you can still come and write the exam, but you have to leave RIGHT NOW!". Fritz and I took this class together, sorry I didn't mention that earlier.

But, as soon as those words fell from his mouth, I broke out of my crying spell and I threw on a jacket, boots without socks and began running out of the building, with tears running down my face, and down the hill to the building where the exam was being held. Yes, there was crust in my eyes. Yes, my breath did stink. But, that did not matter!

As soon as I entered the room, Linda looked at me with the biggest smile on her face. She handed me an examination and told me to take the closest seat.

So, I got to the exam at about 10:45 am and I was done in 30 minutes...I kid you not! When I was done with my exam, Linda said that she sent Fritz to check on me to make sure that I was okay. I explained to her that I overslept as I was up all night studying and then I began crying again.

I could not stop thanking her for allowing me to come and write the exam.

An "F" would not have looked too great on my transcript.

*Sigh*

Honestly, that day was a miracle in and of itself. Thank God for Fritz and thank God for a professor who knew the kind of person I was and never doubted me in any way. People like Linda, people that truly care about their students and others, are the ones who make the world a much better place.