A Day In The Life At Carleton College

Yeah, I’m a “grinder.” How could you tell?

Of course, my morning routine is EPIC. Why wouldn’t it be?

Clearly, I start every day with a cold plunge, 20 ounces of steak, and a gallon of raw milk. What else would I do?

In all seriousness, I’m someone who thrives in routine. Variety is the spice of life, true, but it’s comforting to be able to look forward to small parts of your day that you can count on to lift your spirits. I can’t say my daily routine is as exciting as I might have alluded to in the beginning, but hopefully it will give you a clearer look into what the life of an average Carleton first-year can look like.

The morning hours

I actually do wake up early. Pretty much every day begins at 7:00 AM. I hop out of bed, try not to wake my roommate, and head to the common room to make some breakfast. I usually keep some food in my room instead of heading to the dining hall in the morning—no hate to the food, but sometimes the cereal selection just doesn’t cut it! I do all of the boring cleanliness stuff as well (contrary to popular belief, I actually do shower!), but I’ll spare you the details.

After breakfast, I’ll usually head to the Sayles-Hill Campus Center for studying (or playing video games for a bit!). I like to crack open an energy drink to get me jazzed up for the day—if you ever need advice on which flavors to buy, you couldn’t ask for a more qualified connoisseur. From around 7:30-9:30 is my alone time before heading out to my first class. So far, I’ve had most of my morning free for every term. Fingers crossed it stays that way next year.

First classes

My morning classes are “Logic” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and “Chinese Biographical Histories” on Tuesday and Thursday. Logic is sort of like math mixed with philosophy—concerned with things like “truth-values”, “material conditionals”, and why the argument “the sky is blue, and the sky is red, and therefore I am a shapeshifting robot” is technically deductively valid. Chinese Biographical Histories is a very different course: where we learn about Sima Qian, who wrote biographies of important historical figures in Ancient China (and often threw shade at them in the process!).

Lunch

After my morning classes, I usually grab lunch with some of my friends (most of the time at Burton. LDC only if I am peer pressured into it). If it is Tuesday or Thursday, then good news: I am free for the rest of the day! Yippee! If it is Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, then I have another class. Boo!

The afternoon stretch

That other class is my afternoon course: “Understanding Religion”. It’s pretty interesting, especially since I went into it not knowing what to expect at all. We’ve moved from discussing what religion is, to critiques of religion, to modern religious practices and how they differ from each other. It’s definitely a gap in my general knowledge that needed filling at some point, so I’m glad I’m finally getting around to learning about it!

The rest of my day is less structured. Depending on how much work I have, I might head to the library to lock in until dinner. Or, if it’s a nice day, I’ll lace up my shoes and go for a jog in the arboretum. Sometimes I’ll do both (though not at the same time). Now that it’s spring, I’ve been trying to spend more time outside—something that would have been extremely irresponsible to attempt during the cold months of January and February.

Evening activities

A grand feast at dinner precedes rock climbing practice from 8:30-10:00 PM. I’ve already blogged about the sport, but I have to reiterate: if you are at all interested in trying out a fun new activity (that is actually not as dangerous as it might look), then you should drop into the bouldering cave on Tuesday and Thursday night. It’s a great time—the only downside is that, when I’m finished at 10, I’m so hyper that it’s difficult to fall asleep afterwards!

Sleepytime

Alas, I force myself to hit the hay. I aim for before eleven, but most of the time I’m satisfied with before midnight. After all, tomorrow is a new day—and 7:00 AM is when the grind begins again 😎.

Inigo (he/him/his) is trying very hard to turn interests in subjects like film, english, and psychology into a manageable course load. Originally from Somerville, Massachusetts, he can often be found running in the Cowling Arboretum (and getting passed by everyone on the cross country team) or rock climbing at the bouldering cave in the evening. He loves Carleton’s walkability: it didn’t even matter that he forgot to bring his bike to campus. He considers bad horror movies to be the ultimate form of entertainment.