Having
to study too much makes me do different, sometimes weird, things. As such I
will recount my exciting studying journey, or not.
To
keep life from feeling too monotonous, I tend to try out new stuff during long
periods of studying (I mean like one month of studying period, not like 12
hours).
So
I tried to vary my studying location, from school classroom to class bench to
music lab, then macdonald’s and the public library, of course settling down at
home at my table and on my bed and at my mom’s workstation and the living room
and on the floor. Yet I still can’t decide which is the most effective for me.
Maybe I’m destined to be a nomad when it comes to studying locations. There are
some places I won’t go back to, though. (The public library I went to was so
intimidating!!)
Then
I tried to vary the music I listen to while studying, if any at all. It ranged
from my familiar collection of pop songs in my phone, to my k-rock bias list, to
piano improvisations and covers, and Japanese type of jazzy and game or
film-ish music (whereupon I bumped into Indian music??), to weird modern
compositions with scratchy and airy strings and almost atonal melodies, to Owl
City’s cheery electro-pop to Adam Young’s list of a thousand and one side
projects, which led to random post-rock/ambient music. I also can’t decide
which suits studying best. Sometimes it distracts me, sometimes it motivates
me. These days I’ve been listening to post-rock and ambient stuff even though
it was never really a genre I ever took note of, because even though some of
the music is very repetitive and some may not even have a tune or some are made
up of noise, really, the wordless nature of it makes it less distracting I
guess. I can’t even say whether I like the music; some of them sound literally
and figuratively offbeat… But seriously if you put a nice chord progression on
a nice synth on repeat I guess it works for studying too.
I
also attempted to study with different food at hand. Okay, mostly I went with
whatever was available. Sometimes I abstained from food until mealtimes because
simply, there was no food around. Sometimes I had some seaweed, sometimes I got
some sweet drinks… I don’t know but with food and a drink I feel more able to
sustain because it is a subtle kind of distraction that keeps me going? Maybe
it’s the sugar rushhhhh.
Well
after all these have been said, it feels like the actual studying becomes
secondary HAHA. But it’s how I cope, by doing little random things like these
to keep myself sane! Hope you guys are also finding your own ways to survive
this period of time! Actually what someone I overheard said is true, that the
period before As is harder than during this month. For me, the pressure
build-up is caused by the thought of this LOOMING thing that everyone makes out
to be so scary and important. But when you’re in the midst of it, if you just
take a breath, you kind of get used to it. It’s like how I’m immensely more
reluctant to go up a rollercoaster when I’m walking up the treacherously long
flight of stairs, than when I am ON the ride and feel the wind and maybe kind
of slightly almost enjoy it if I don’t think about how many feet I’m off the
ground and that stomach-twisting turn ahead of me.
Yeap
so 3 more weeks to go! Thankful that the crazy week is over! And goodbye to
math!!!