A Week in the Life

The potential of a Monday morning. My alarm wakes me but not too early as my class doesn’t start until 11. Sometimes Mondays feel more like the weekend than the weekend. I usually only take one class a day so I spend a lot of time working in Mudd library. Taking one class a day has been one of my favorite parts of senior year as it has allowed me to be efficient with the time that I spend studying and the time that I spend relaxing. This particular Monday I’ve spent a lot of time in my professor's office hours. I have been working on restructuring data in Stata for my research project and he has been helping me through the process. One of the things I appreciate the most about Oberlin is the attention to detail that the professors pay to every student. Our professors always make time to meet with us to discuss our schoolwork, as well as future plans, and I have found this invaluable throughout my college career!

Tuesdays are when things really kick into high gear. I start my day with a 9:30 AM class that teaches me how to tutor other students in writing. I have really appreciated this class as it has allowed me to develop my fundamentals as a writer. Over the years I’ve realized that having a strong foundation is crucial to maximizing your potential in an area. I would like to maximize my potential as a writer. I get out of class around 11:00 and pop my earbuds in and walk over to the science center to meet up with my girlfriend. We usually eat lunch together while watching a TV series. After eating lunch I’ll head over to the library where I talk with my friends from the Oberlin Finance and Investment Club about what is going on with the stock market. These conversations can be great learning experiences for me as many of my friends have interned at investment banks and have a great deal of knowledge in the world of investing. Lately, my friends have been talking more and more about NFTs and cryptocurrency, which has led me to research those topics more. I find the world of investing extremely interesting and am excited to see the direction the world moves in.

I like to think of Wednesdays as mini Tuesdays. On Wednesday I have class but it is a shorter class than on Tuesdays. On Wednesday I work in the writing center but not for as long as on Tuesdays. The one thing that makes Wednesdays harder than Tuesdays is the workout. Wednesday workouts are typically two and a half hours long with a focus on upright running. Wednesdays are extremely important because upright running is one of the main things I have consistently needed to improve throughout my college track career. I usually wrap up track practice around 7:00 and then shower and grab some food from the Rathskeller. I start my shift at the writing center at nine so I head over to Mudd and study with friends until it’s time to start. Working with students in the writing center has been a tremendous experience this year. A point of emphasis that the writing center has is peer-to-peer learning and I have to say I have learned so much from the students I have worked with this semester. Working in the writing center has become one of my favorite parts of my week as it has allowed me to develop my writing skills while helping others! 

This Thursday is a day of preparation for tomorrow. Tomorrow I will have my first indoor track meet in two years. In order to be as successful as possible, I spend the day hydrating and mentally preparing myself for success. Track practice is very light as we want to be as fresh as possible for tomorrow. Even though it is light, it is still effective as we do three long jump approaches, which is very valuable as the long jump will be my main event tomorrow. Once practice is over I head over to my senior seminar. My senior seminar is from 7 to 9 at night on Thursdays. In each class, we go over a research paper that focuses on economics and the environment. These papers have developed my mind as an economist as well as given me a greater idea of how to approach my research project as a whole. Overall, my senior seminar has been one of my favorite classes I’ve taken at Oberlin. After attending class, I head over to A House where I work in the A House writing center from 9 to 10. It’s always great ending my day working with and learning from other students, and this Thursday is no different!

Friday is a day of adrenaline. After not being able to compete last week due to injury, this will be my first track meet of the season. I wake up and drink water and mentally prepare myself for competition. It has been over two years since I last competed in an indoor track meet. I did have some school tasks to complete before I headed to the meet, though, so I headed over to King for my professor's office hours. After speaking with my professor for an hour and a half about my senior seminar research project I headed over to my dorm room to grab my track shoes. From there I loaded the bus to head over to Tiffin University. On the bus, I tried to pace my playlist to when I would arrive at the meet. I didn’t want the songs to be too hype too soon. My event, the long jump, was the first one on the track, so as soon as I arrived I began warming up. After an hour and a half it was time to compete. My first jump down the runway never turned into a jump. I threw form out the window on my first attempt and wasn’t able to get off the ground. After getting the nerves out of the way I came back on the second one and unfortunately fouled the jump but still came down the runway with better intensity than the first jump. I had one jump left to attempt to qualify for finals. I sprinted down the runway, gradually rising, trusting my training. I hit the board to jump and as my body lifted into the air I thought to myself, “Wow, this is going to be close as to whether it’s a foul or not.” It was a little too close. I was told the jump would have put me into finals but I was a toe over and it was instead a foul. Anticlimactic, but everyone starts somewhere. I spent the rest of the meet watching my teammates put all their hard work to the test as they competed in their respective events. It was amazing seeing what we could do after being gone for so long, and even if I didn’t immediately get the results I wanted, I know they will come.

After a late start to the day on Saturday, I hit the track around noon for a tempo workout. Yesterday’s track meet didn’t go as planned as I fouled on all three of my jump attempts, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon the plan. The goals I have set out are still in front of me and even though I fouled my jumps the distance I got on them was promising. After wrapping up my workout I head over to Umami and grabbed a hot orange chicken bowl before going back to my room. I have reached the time of year when I need to kick it into high gear academically. I have been coding for the past couple of weeks for my senior seminar and have managed to restructure my data to a suitable form, but I still need to merge the datasets and get a regression. Life is a marathon, not a sprint, but Friday I sprint to the regression. After eight hours of work and a few helpful emails from my economics professor, I managed to create multiple statistically significant regressions. While the work was hard the results were so rewarding, and I am very excited to see what the rest of my econ seminar will bring.

Sundays have been my slow days this semester and I plan on this Sunday being extremely slow. After working hard yesterday on my economics regression I need a break. I feel it’s important for one’s mental health to build in time for your mind to rest during the week. I spend this Sunday watching movies and eating Bingos. As the day fades into the night I double-check that I completed all the assignments that I needed to complete for the upcoming week. Winter break is just around the corner and my goal is to get most of my work done before the break starts. Days like Saturday will allow me to reach this goal, but days like Sunday are just as important. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about what my week looked like. At Oberlin every week is unique and brings new excitement. The energy on campus is uplifting and everyone is met with constant support from the professors and fellow students. I can’t wait to tell you more about the fun events that happen at Oberlin and make sure to leave a comment and tell me what your favorite day of the week is and why!