Being an ISE major (and an engineer in general) I have a strong desire to do activities as efficiently as possible. I’m that ridiculous person that walks on the grass because it is the shortest route and organizes grocery lists so that the items are in order of how I’ll walk around the store. I took this same approach to selecting classes in October. I realized that I could either have classes that ended at 5PM or 2PM. I knew if I had 11AM classes I would just sleep in until right before the class started so I did the math. I would be wasting 3 hours, 5 days a week, or 225 hours throughout the semester! Now I know what you are thinking, “you’ll have to go to sleep three hours earlier so the savings would be cancelled out.” However, in my first semester of college I found that my productivity drops pretty quickly after midnight. To be specific, if x = AM hour, for 1 ≤ x ≤ 5, productivity = 100 – (x + 7)^2, and yes, I definitely become counterproductive past 3AM. Regardless of when I’ll be waking up, it is most efficient if I go to sleep as close to midnight as possible. If the math isn’t enough to convince you, here is my list of why getting up at 7:07AM, five days a week was a very good thing.
- Dining Dash: When I would roll into the EVK dining hall at 7:38AM it would pretty much just be the ROTC students and me. All the fruit would be fresh and there was never a line for the omelet bar. I could be in and out of the dining hall in less than 10 minutes. Efficiency can be a tasty and beautiful thing.
- No Obstacles: Passing period at USC is really a sight to see. Since we have an incredibly flat campus, bikes and skateboards are a perfect mode of transportation. Unfortunately, it can sometimes feel like you are cutting across the Tour de France on Trousdale during peak hours. At 7:50AM, however, there is almost no one out which leaves me and my skateboard with a lack of people to run into, creating a much safer environment for everyone. There is nothing like riding top speed across campus with no obstacles insight.
- Perky Professors: There is definitely an advantage to being a professor’s first class of the day. They are much more energetic and excited at the start of the day. They welcome questions and you get to the the first person with the correct answer.
- Morning Pride: There was something about coming back to my dorm room after my first class and seeing my roommate still asleep and knowing that I had already showered, eaten breakfast, and gone to class while she hadn’t moved. I definitely felt self-satisfied and confident that I had accomplished so much while other were still dreaming of what they were going to do.
- Free Time: I really did have a lot more free time than a lot of my peers. This would leave my time to finish my homework, explore campus, and talk with professors. It was great to be able to attend functions without the worry of missing class.
