About Time

Chapter 2

July 2014

"I guess I overslept, sorry to have kept you guys waiting."

"Nah, it's okay Ralph, take a seat.", Xander said pulling out a seat from under the table.

Another typical meal time at our favorite cafeteria, Donna's Eatery. Chatting away during meal time before going back to our respective dorms to study. 

Honestly though, I hate studying. During my years in school, I never developed a study habit. What's worse is that I'm studying alone, no friends to back me up whenever I needed help in a problem that needs solving. Some of batchmates even laugh at me when I said I studied because they say I don't need it. Well, at times they were right, but this time was different, slacking off was not an option.

Everyday was a struggle to find motivation. It was so hard to keep up as I was already behind by two months. I thought my friends were any better, but during the two months I was gone, they were slacking off, only Desiree and Melchor got any serious studying done, but they're expected to pass the exam anyway, so they don't count.

"This is for my future...huh?"

Anyways, I'm already here, so might as well put it all on the line. No regrets. Never surrender.

I might have been spacing out because Xander asked me what was wrong.

"Hey! Snap out of it.", he exclaimed.

"Uhhh, yeah, sorry about that."

"You alright?"

"Stressed out, don't worry about it."

After dinner, we headed out to Uncle Gaga's place, which a computer shop and a dart board. We always hung out here after meals, and even play darts at times.

I stayed there until 8:30 PM, since that was my usual study time.

"Guys, I gotta go. Back to studying for me."

They pleaded for me to stay awhile but I just wanna rest for a while and catch up on my studying.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow.", I said as I waved them goodbye.

Back at the dormitories, the study lobby was filled with review books and laptops that were plugged in. Some were studying, most of them were watching a TV series on their laptops.

"Slacking off too, huh?", I said to myself.

I went back to my room...sweating...my room was on the fourth floor, and the elevators weren't working, so I worked up a sweat climbing the stairs. Due to that, I lost my dinner and my appetite to study. So I laid down on my bed for a while to catch my breath. My roommate entered soon after, who had just finished taking a bath.

After half an hour of resting, I decided to study.

It was 11:30 PM. Two hours of familiarizing formulas and solving problems. My eyes hurt and so does my back, so I opted to go to sleep. My roommate was slacking off the whole night, so he didn't help motivating me either. I laid down my bed once again.

January 2014

New year.

I was on the verge of giving up. I spent the whole two weeks off doing nothing to improve the progress of our thesis. No matter how much I tried to decipher the codes to our program, I was getting nowhere. I was unsure what to do, and I hated consulting with our adviser because he would just rub it on our faces that we can't do it. I was in a lose-lose situation. I had to figure something out.