It’s Monday morning and you have hit the snooze button on the alarm five times which means it’s too late to take a shower and if you don’t get out of bed now, you’ll also miss your ride. So you roll out of your sleep, grab a clean shirt and look for your backpack. It’s in the kitchen and while you are there you grab the orange juice carton out of the fridge but it looks like your brother beat you to it and it’s empty. You can hear your ride honking outside and you quickly check yourself in the mirror before you leave. Hair undone, sleep wrinkles still on your cheek, mismatched socks and probably a million and one things forgotten. The day just started and you are already exhausted from the effort of getting out of bed.
You have two classes this morning before you make it to lunch and then, another torturous class before swim practice. You’ve done this routine many times before and you tell yourself that this is just another day. In your first class you realize you didn’t do the assignment and while everyone does corrections, you space out and doodle on your notebook, chin in hand, and still dreaming about sleep. You keep yawning and everyone’s liveliness so early in the morning is annoying. The girl in front of you keeps turning around to say something in her irritating voice, she comments about the sleep creases on your cheek and you just give her a blank stare. She doesn’t say it, but she’s the type who would say something like “Looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays” with a huge grin. No one should have to put up with her on Monday morning. It’s exhausting just to listen to her nasally voice and you wish you never got out of bed. But luckily things will get better during your second class, mostly because she won’t be there to annoy you.
In your next class the teacher is funny, your best friend sits behind you and you don’t mind the assignments because it’s something you are good at. Unfortunately the teacher isn’t there today and you have a substitute who is subjecting the class to watching a documentary film from the eighties. And of course because she’s a substitute, she’s making everyone take a page of notes, ruining your plan to catch up on some sleep. Your best friend keeps whispering things about the substitute–how her breasts look crooked and maybe she’s one of those people with three nipples–and you try your hardest to ignore him to keep from laughing out loud. Turns out the documentary is so boring and full of useless information that you manage to take a page of notes in the first 10 minutes. You put your head on the desk, and have a dream about your alarm going off and reaching for the snooze button but your best friend wakes you up because the lunch bell has rang.
Lunch is the usual crowd of catching up on weekend stories, gossiping and planning next weekend. Standing in line for a hot dog then standing in another line for ketchup, listening to the girls grind on about who-said-what and who-got-laid and watching the guys tease one another about “what went down” and who got a better time at the swim meet feels repetitive and useless. You realize how fed up and tired you are with school and you can’t wait for graduation and something new. School has made you weary and you desperately something new. Then again, it is a Monday and maybe you do have “a case of the Mondays.”
You drag yourself into the last class of the day which is always the worst because lunch makes you groggy and the only thing that sound appealing is a nap. Instead you get geometry exercises and a pop quiz. Fortunately the exercises are easy and the quiz is a breeze and when the final bell rings, it’s hard to believe you made it through the academic school day. The only light of hope on Mondays is swim practice and you get to the lockers quickly, excited to get into the cool waters of the swimming pool.
The coach seems to be in a bad mood today and you have a combined practice which means you’ll be swimming nothing but heats for the next 2 hours. Lap after lap, every stroke imaginable until your arms and legs feel like jelly. There’s nothing like swim practice to leave you completely exhausted and spent and if you were tired this morning, then there’s no word for how you feel now. Even taking a proper shower to get the chlorine out of your hair is a sacrifice and all you think about is the comfort of your bed waiting for you at home.
But at home there’s chores to be done and dealing with your parents. Over dinner, everyone seems to be tired from a long Monday and glad at last for the day to almost be over. For you there’s still fighting your brother for the channel changer, taking the dog for a walk and cracking the books open for homework. With the amount of homework you have, it feels like the day is never going to end but in a few hours you are able to get it all taken care of. You change into pajamas, brush your teeth, wash your face and hallelujah! You are finally back in bed.
You feel mentally exhausted and physically spent. Every inch of you is tired and the effort of thinking makes you drowsy, bringing sleep quickly. Your mother complains about being tired of dealing with customers and your father says he is sick of his clients. Your brother claims he’s exhausted from juggling college and his part-time job but you know there is no comparison for how tired you feel right now.You don’t know what tired is until you’ve been a high school student that made it to the end of another Monday.
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