Regular Dude Doing Regular Things (A Day in the Life)
Nick takes you through his typical Wednesday and talks about getting no sleep.
Nick takes you through his typical Wednesday and talks about getting no sleep.
When creativity fails, clichés and bad writing prevails. So here it is: the obligatory “Day in the Life” blog! Although my life is a bit boring, I promise I’ll make this at least mildly interesting. I like reading these types of blogs because I always compare my life with their lives and then get jealous of how productive they are. But now I get to make you envious of me.
8:00 AM – Wake up + arb run
The first thing I like to do when I wake up is open my eyes. Next, I go over to my roommate’s bed and blast K-Pop to wake him up too. After that crucial task, I like to go on a quick jog to get my mind and body awake for the day. Running, even if it’s only for 30 minutes, is my way to get myself into a productive mindset. Plus, getting lost in the arboretum is always so beautiful.
9:15 AM – Project Friendship meeting
As an intern for Project Friendship, I brainstorm ways on how to implement the ICAP grant into our program. I’m also one of the college’s program directors! I corral people at Carleton to become mentors. Overall, it’s a great volunteering experience!
9:50 AM – Intro to Statistics
My first class of the day was statistics. I’m taking this as a requirement for my economics major. Today, we learned about finding the distribution of a mean.
11:10 AM – Intermediate Chinese
This class is my favorite in my schedule. I will be going to Beijing, China in the winter to immerse myself in hot pot and boba, so I’ve been studying hard and practicing a ton to prepare!
12:30 PM – Lunch
Since I’m already in the Language and Dining Center building every day for Chinese, I almost exclusively eat here. I like to first set out all my food before I begin eating: it makes me feel like a medieval king surveying his feast. My friends call me weird, though.
1:20 PM – Homework
My downtime is always spent doing homework because apparently joy is only for people with better time management. I sometimes study in my room, but my bed distracts me too much. So here I am in Gould Library. Since I also work at the Writing Center, I’m basically always here.
3:15 PM – Preparing for practice
Off to practice! Time to foam roll, stretch, and use the massage gun. I like to use these leg compressions mostly because it gives me an excuse to be on my phone.
3:45 PM – Soccer practice
Balling out.
5:10 PM – Quick gym session
After practice, I like to either get some extra touches in, go for another run, bike, or lift weights. I try to stay super active so I never have to worry about the amount of junk food I eat (which is a lot). On practice days, I only do a light session. During the off-season, however, I love to lift as heavy as possible and then get injured. Sometimes I worry that if I lift too much I’ll turn into a square, but that’s a problem for future me.
6:15 PM – Recovery
I spend a bit of time doing recovery work. This is mainly an ice bath and more stretching. I also use this 10-20 minute downtime to release any stress and try to reflect on life choices.
6:40 PM – Dinner
LDC again (I’m too lazy to walk to Burton). Not a bad dinner today. The pasta was edible and that’s the most I can ask for.
7:30 PM – Limbo
I used my 30 minutes of dilly-dally time to work on this blog. Very meta!
8:00 PM – The Manuscript meeting
Second meeting of the day: The Manuscript, Carleton’s poetry publication. We read, debate, and sometimes argue passionately over uncapitalized letters. It’s low-stakes, but high-drama, and I definitely recommend joining!
9:00 PM – Consultant shift at the Writing Center
Helped a few students with essays while sipping tea like a Victorian scholar (a habit picked up from my time in England). Very classy. Very pretentious.
10:00 PM – Homework
It just so happens that most of my availability is late at night, so I usually work on more homework then. This is about the time when I really start feeling my lack of sleep and want to doomscroll. When I feel this way, I think about how every minute of torture spent here is for the betterment of my future children’s lives. Luckily I didn’t have much to do tonight, which was weirdly unsettling. Who am I without the sweet embrace of homework?
1:00 AM – Vibin’
My free time of the day! If my roommates are up, I like to have dumb conversations with them. Otherwise, I seriously just mess around: playing my guitar, listening to music, or reading.
1:30 AM – Lights out
I try to sleep at a reasonable-ish time. By 1:30 I’m full delirious and fall asleep right away. It’s definitely not ideal, but it’s been working. Therefore, I have no incentive to fix it yet.
That concludes a day in my very normal, somewhat boring life. Be on the lookout for next week’s blog, when I’ll probably be out of ideas again.
Nick (he/him/his) is a sophomore from Seattle, Washington, and serves as the blog’s editor. He plans to double major in English and Economics with a minor in Creative Writing and Chinese. A member of Carleton’s Varsity Soccer team, he also enjoys staying active at the Recreation Center and running through the fields of the Arboretum. When not working out, he can often be found reading by Lyman Lakes if the mosquitoes choose to leave him alone that day.
On campus, Nick works as a Writing Consultant in the Academic Support Center, where he enjoys helping classmates with their papers. He serves as a Program Director at Project Friendship, where he also interns and hopes to expand the program’s reach. Additionally, he’s part of the Manuscript Editorial Board and volunteers (naps) at the Record Library.