Senior discovers the world of naps

Senior Candice Zheng

Honestly, I really don’t know what I was doing with my life before this current semester.

It all happened the week after winter break. I was sluggish and irritated at school from not getting my standard 12 hours of sleep while operating on break schedule. Clearly taking those two blissful weeks for granted, I stumbled back home red-eyed and full of unpleasant thoughts.

Dumping my backpack roughly on the ground, I made motions to waste time on the Internet on my bed, my usual routine when I come home from school. This time, though, something inside me changed. After struggling to keep my eyes focused on the dancing cat gif in front of me, I closed my laptop and proceeded to take a shut-eye.

You might be thinking: Why in the world is taking a nap  such a big deal? One thing you don’t know about me is that before this fateful moment, I had never taken taken a nap if I could avoid one. The only times I had succumbed to my bed is when I was sick. There was always more “Sherlock” episodes to watch, more time to waste on Buzzfeed and more “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” clips to binge watch on YouTube. To the old me, taking a nap was like losing a battle. And I do not like to lose.

Anyway, continuing with my story, I awoke from my nap 2.5 hours later at 5:30 p.m., disoriented and confused. At first I was in a panic, as the sky was dim, and I thought I had slumbered on  over to the next day.

However, after checking the time, the panic subsided, and I thought to myself, “Wow. This feels nice. The bed is soft and warm. I’m comfy. Let’s go back to sleep.” I proceeded to fall back asleep and was knocked out until 7 p.m., when my mom’s voice beckoned me to the kitchen for dinner.

Feeling full and well-rested, I realized that I could get used to this napping thing. Since that day, I dive into bed and take a nap until dinner every day after coming from school. It’s come to a point where I find myself thinking about climbing into the covers multiple times during the day. In fact, I’m beginning to question if the only reason I go to school is so I can come back from school to take my daily nap.

Who needs a social life (or anything else, for that matter) when you can just nap your life away? Certainly not me. Why on earth would you ever choose having to put in the effort to interact with people or strain your eyes on a book or a computer screen when all your problems could be solved by the bliss of a nap? Think about it.

I vouch for napping as a recreational hobby and highly recommend it to anyone. Of course, if you are not a second semester senior and don’t have gaping holes in your schedule full of, oh, I don’t know, nothing, you might have a small issue. But to everyone else out there who is willing to take on the challenge, nap on, my friends.