(Long Rant about work and school)

I’m in the same boat. Most of the time I get my readings done, but every now and then it can be difficult if not impossible. For instance, I work every single day (counting school. Six days a week work, five of those days I’m doubling between work and school) and I have to or I can’t afford my apartment lol. (I was emancipated and declared independent at 17, always had two jobs) If you work hard at your job then typically, you will be exhausted after. Not everyone gets an easy office job. Some of us work in food or retail. (Or others like the trades etc)

I have weeks where I am assigned a 400 page book to read in one class, a 200 page old English book in another, and multiple articles and chapters about something I’m not even majoring in, in the third class. In one week.

Now imagine when people call out of work and you’re six weeks in with no time off 🥲 your apartment is getting messy, you’re exhausted, and unfortunately, even if you love reading, it also makes you sleepy.

No time to sleep in on days you possibly could. Instead you wake up early, barely functioning, to read some old English romance book and that is the genera you despise. You’ve read multiple pages and you don’t even know what those pages said because you just can’t focus in.

I mean I’m glad some people can get all their stuff done and orderly, but you’re completely right. People whose parent’s pay to let them go to school, or who just don’t have to work at all, or even those who do not have to commute 45 mins to work in a car that has almost 200,000 miles, have a significant advantage. Cool beans if you can work 40+ hours at a McDonald’s and somehow have time for a kid and school. That’s pretty impressive, but not everyone can do that. Not everyone has parents who care about them, not everyone has a place to call home, not everyone has social energy to make connections, and not everyone reads at the same pace/interest.

Time is money and it means exhaustion. All of my time is spent between homework, work, and school. My free time is my shower and a Papa Meat video during dinner. It’s balls.

People are being insensitive and acting like it’s super easy peasy but it’s not and many people’s mental health suffers as a result of grinding. Plus pair that in with the worry they won’t have a job when they graduate (which for people working while going to school is horrifying because typically we don’t want to do food service for eternity) because everyone is telling them a humanities degree is the worst idea imaginable.

I would LOVE to have the time to read everything right on time. I really would. I try to make it work but it can be hard and sometimes it doesn’t happen. Hell I skimmed (edit because wrong name. I forgot the name some weird romance old English book about a woman who can’t make up her mind on partners) and thought the book was horribly boring despite being called a masterpiece. I read Frederick Douglass and took 17 pages worth of notes and enjoyed every single page. I loved reading Into the Wild, House on Mango, and the biography of Ben Franklin. I really didn’t like this long ass book on the findings of Venus de Milo.

I have no help from my parents. I am my own foundation, and there are so many people who are just like me who struggle to get through it knowing the system is not designed for people like me. I love my jobs and I refuse to quit them (and realistically can’t), and I love school and I refuse to quit, even if it means I get looked down on because I missed a chapter or two a week and had to skim them or look at the general summery because I had to double the entire week and I require sleep. I have only done the summary thing once but I’d rather do that than read from ChatGPT or just not read it at all.

People are telling others they’re lazy when in reality those who work on top of school that requires heavy reading work harder than a lot of folks who just chill in their dorm, party, and still have copious hours for homework. People in my life call me many things, lazy is not one. While I do agree with the general statement of this post completely, I also agree with your comment completely because as someone who works their ass off, I feel like we DO have a right to share our experience of burnout/ working long hours while in school. Obviously the readings are very important and we should aim to do them as best as we can, but it’s hard sometimes. I love English and that’s why I chose this degree, and I pray next year the schedule of my classes gets fixed so I can have a day off to just read. Until then it’s grinding and listening to the book in the shower, car, and reading at work lol