Tell Your Story – Mason Porter

Today’s post in the “Tell Your Story” project comes from Mason Porter, the first in his series.

The Beginning

Hello, my name is Mason Porter. I am a sophomore at Iowa State University. I am triple majoring in History, Political Science, and Religious Studies. I am also thinking about adding Geology as either another major or a minor. This blog post will be an account of my personal experience in this time of trouble up until today, March 26, 2020.  

Last semester, I took a couple really hard classes and also had problems managing my time and my sleep schedule. I would procrastinate horribly, always waiting to the last second to do something. I was also consistently staying up until six or seven or eight in the morning, and then get up at ten to go to class the next day. This lack of sleep as well as an addiction to caffeine made me tired enough that I started falling asleep during classes. As a result of all these things, my grades and my productivity at work dropped. By the end of the semester, I was lucky to not have failed any classes. Considering I am usually a B or better student, this was concerning. Needless to say, I needed to get my act together.  

Over winter break I decided to change. I started getting up earlier to be able to go to the gym before class, so I wouldn’t be tired for my first class. I also created a schedule for when to work on homework based on how much time each assignment needed. I also tried my best to go to bed by two or three in the morning at the latest. I realize that this is still horribly late for most people, but for me it’s progress. I also stopped drinking all caffeine over winter break. As for my classes themselves, because of how difficult my classes were last semester, I decided to take a bunch of fun and relatively easy classes. By spring break, I was really enjoying my classes, and I had even stopped falling asleep during class. My sleep schedule was even back to normal, at least for me anyway. Then this virus broke out and changed everything. 

Having to take classes online and having to be quarantined in my apartment has drastically changed a lot of things in my life, and not necessarily for the better. Let’s start with the obvious stuff.  

My classes are online. This is obviously a huge change. I learn better in the classroom because I understand things better when I have that physical connection with my teacher or professor. Another reason I don’t like having a lot of online work is that I get chronic migraines and looking at a bright computer screen for long amounts of time regularly gives me migraines. I combat this problem on my phone by keeping everything I can in dark mode, so the screen isn’t that bright, but I can’t do that on my computer and on the programs that our class work is on. Having physical classes to go to also helps me with time management.  

The next obvious change is that I can’t go to the gym. Going to the gym isn’t just exercise for me. It grounds me and calms me and is the thing that keeps my time management and sleep schedule in check. If I don’t get up and go to the gym, I lose the motivation that I need to stop myself from procrastinating. The gym is also the time every day that I use to clear my head and think about anything that is on my mind. If I don’t go to the gym, I do this before I go to bed, causing myself to stay up hours later than I mean to.  

Being stuck at home has changed my life in a few drastic ways. The first is that I can’t go to work. I work in the Stacks Management department at the university library. My job is basically to move, put back, and keep organized the books at the library. This obviously can’t be done online. Though the people in charge of the library has worked and is working really hard to find something for the library’s student workers to do online, so that they can still get paid. This for me is both good and bad. The good side to this is that I’m getting paid. The downside is that long amounts of online work gives me migraines, like writing this is doing right now. I have never let my migraines and other chronic pains get in the way of my work, so I will just push through like I always have done. The next thing that being stuck in my apartment has changed is that my roommate (who is my sister) and her boyfriend are also stuck in my apartment. They are both avid video game players. Being stuck in this small apartment over spring break with them with nothing to do, they got me to start playing video games with them. I am now addicted, which has made it even more difficult to get my schoolwork done. Unlike most people, though, this quarantine that we have to be under because of the Coronavirus hasn’t really affected my social life. I am a very introverted person who finds being around and talking with other people uncomfortable at best. I don’t ever leave my apartment unless I have to anyway, so I am not losing time with friends or missing out on any social events. My other roommate refuses to accept this quarantine and continues to go hang out with friends every day even though she knows that the rest of us that live in our apartment have pre-existing medical conditions that, were we to get the Coronavirus, would most likely die, but that is besides the point. Back to me. 

Now time for the overall effects of this quarantine. First and foremost, aside from getting rid of my caffeine addiction, all the progress that I made during the first half of the semester in getting my life back together has been undone. My sleep schedule is worse than ever. I am consistently going to bed at six or seven in the morning, but now because I don’t have a set time I need to be in class or at work, I now struggle getting up until two or three in the afternoon. Next is my eating routine. I have never eaten right, I rarely eat three meals in a day, but now some days I don’t even have one meal, I just have a couple small snacks. Then there are days like today where I haven’t eaten a single thing all day, well since I woke up just before two in the afternoon. My time management skills are now basically non-existent. It is a struggle to get any work done. For example, I normally have a night class on Thursday nights, like tonight. This class has lots of readings due every Thursday. Normally, when my last class is done at two on Wednesday, I would sit down and do the reading, it would take me six or eight hours because I have a learning disorder that affects my reading speed, but I would get it done. Yesterday after I finished the video lectures that I had to watch for my last class on Wednesdays, I put down my laptop, got on my Xbox, and played video games until ten thirty at night. I then decided to do the reading no matter how late it kept me up. I got through nine pages and then gave up and got on YouTube, which I was on until five in the morning. We have had four days of classes since classes got switched to online only, and I have already almost missed one deadline for an assignment.  

By the end of the semester last semester I felt like everything was about to fall apart. My grades were in free fall, I was getting basically no sleep, and my mental health was trash. I was basically on the verge of having a mental breakdown at all times. Where I am at today is almost to the same point that I was at during that time, and there is still half a semester to go. I know I need to change, now let’s see if I can do it.  

Friday March 27, 2020

From this point on I will be giving daily updates on what is going on and how I am trying to improve my life while living in quarantine. First, I’ll update you on the rest of yesterday. Where we left off yesterday, I hadn’t eaten all day, and I was still struggling with procrastination. I should have worked longer yesterday, so I could try to get at ten hours of this in this week. I was tired and in pain though, so I just sat around on YouTube the rest of the night. I didn’t even think of doing any homework yesterday. As for the readings due for my Thursday class, I double checked, and because of this whole switch to online classes, my professor pushed the due date back a week. Also, good news. I ate supper. My sister and her boyfriend made something for the three of us. Finally, I went to bed last night before one in the morning for only the second or third time in several months. Now for today. I got up at nine thirty in the morning, which was great. I love waking up early. I even ate breakfast this morning, which is something I haven’t done since in person classes got canceled. After breakfast, I was able to put aside my procrastination and get right to work. I finished all the classwork that I had to get done for today done by one in the afternoon. I even watched one of my Monday lecture videos today. After I finished all of my classwork, I took an hour break to eat lunch and rest (my chronic pain has been acting up all day) before starting work on this blog update. This morning I also heard form my mom that the Governor of Iowa might be announcing a stay in place order, so no one will be able to go anywhere.The thought of this is mildly terrifying, but we’ll cross that bridge when it comes right? As for the rest of the day, I plan on watching YouTube and maybe doing some free reading. That’s it for today. On Monday, I will update you on how the rest of today and the weekend went.