What the puck? – Reading week from hell

How my professors ruined the Olympics

Article: Autumn McDowell – Sports Editor

I’m not actually left handed. Magic.

[dropcaps round=”no”]L[/dropcaps]ast week, I was supposed to be living the dream, but instead I was stuck in a nightmare.

Reading week, commonly known as “don’t kill yourself week” amongst the student population, is the one savior week that happens during the winter semester, and this one happened to coincide with the 2014 Winter Olympics. It was working out to be a glorious week of no school and watching hockey, which was just what the doctor ordered, but my professors had other ideas.

Apparently, my professors all had the same idea to ruin not only my reading week, but the Olympics as well, something that now I won’t get to enjoy until 2018 when I am pushing 26, in the midst of a quarter-life crisis and wishing for my care free 22-year-old life back again. It was as if my professors collectively came together and decided that rather than make things due before the break, allowing me to actually relax, that things should be due within the first three days that we get back to school, which is just cruel really.

Ironically, in the week leading up to reading week, it appeared as though one of my professors made a mistake and didn’t go with the plan to ruin my break originally, having a midterm scheduled for the Tuesday before the break. But don’t worry, he came to his senses and moved the midterm until after, because God forbid I would not have to study for a week.

Anyways, most students have come to the realization by now, or at least you will, if you are a first year, that reading week is not a week to relax at all, it’s a homework week, and this year was no exception.

For instance, instead of getting to watch the drama unfold in the women’s hockey gold medal game, I was stuck learning about the Mexican-American war, a much less exciting battle than the one that took place on the ice that day. While Mark McMorris was triple-corking his way to a bronze medal, I was memorizing pointless facts, only to forget them as soon as the midterm was over.

Many of you are probably thinking that it was my own choice to study; that I could have watched the Olympics if I wanted to, and that may be true. Maybe I did decide to sit at my dining room table for hours on end listening to the rest of my family members cheer Canada on in my basement, but for some reason I made up my mind that I wanted to do well in school, and it was one of the worst decisions that I have ever made.

While I had every intention of watching countless hours of Olympics last week, I barely watched any, and won’t have another chance to cheer for my country on that grand of a stage for another four years.

So thank you, professors, for ruining not only my supposedly stress-free reading week, but the Olympics as well. I hope you’re happy.

[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Emily Wright[/button]