L is for Laundry

Because my Honors thesis advising meetings are on Wednesdays at 11am, I consistently find myself awake and working (read: procrastinating) late into Tuesday evening.  It’s not that I don’t work on my thesis throughout the week- I do, constantly.  But I can’t (read: usually don’t) give it my full attention on Mondays and Wednesdays (Tuesday and Thursday class assignments) or on Fridays and Saturdays (enjoying my weekend) or on Sundays (weekly organizational meetings).  So, I do the majority of my writing and editing on Tuesday nights.

For instance, I have twenty pages due to my advisor tomorrow.  Now, I have written sixteen of those pages over the course of the last two weeks, but I find myself squeezing out another four and editing the whole product tonight.  There is a hidden bright side to all of this, besides the obvious joy in thesis research: washing machines and dryers are rarely taken at 3am on a Tuesday night.

Every two weeks, I break up my Tuesday late-night writing by doing my laundry.  Laundry is a dreadful task in college- not because it is very difficult or because I dislike folding clothes, but because industrial washers and dryers seem to take three times as long as my washers and dryers at home.  So, doing laundry means building about two hours into my schedule, from putting clothes in to be washed to transferring them to the dryers to folding and putting them away.  Still, I’ve grown to appreciate this time- while my clothes are washed and dried, I vacuum my floor, change the sheets on my bed, replace my towels, dust my bookshelves, and reorganize my closet.

It sounds monotonous, and this entry is exponentially less exciting than the others I’ve written.  But let’s be clear: college is not just classes, concerts, service trips, and weekend adventures.  It is also living away from home, maintaining a dorm room or apartment, sharing bathrooms and kitchens, staying healthy, making meals, and learning to survive independently.  Part of my sanity, in the midst of academic stress and extracurricular obligations, is based on my ability to keep my living space clean and organized.  College students don’t just go to school; we live here.

And even though the laundry room is sometimes crowded into the wee hours of the night, I would not want to live anywhere else.

Go Tribe,

Bailey