The Twenty-Three Hour Day

Working in the Systems and Grocery Departments at Meijer during my college years introduced me to a lot of responsibility that affected thousands of people every day. It also introduced me to full forty-hour work weeks, and I quickly learned to deal with a work schedule that ate into my social life from time to time.

6:00am shifts were a very cozy way to start my mornings most days of the week, but it was my 4:00am Sunday shifts in Grocery that really kept my free time in check. Despite going to bed around 5:30pm every Saturday afternoon for a year and a half, I actually found a grand upside to this six-or-four schedule: the Twenty-Three Hour Day.

On the occasions that I worked and had the subsequent day off, I was presented with the opportunity to have a very, very long day. I have always loved making the most of my waking hours, so look at an example of a Wednesday schedule for a 6:00am work day:

• 4:30am: Up for work
• 6:00am - 2:30pm: Work at Meijer
• 3:00pm - 7:00pm: Classes at BGSU
• 7:30pm - 8:30pm: Meet up with friends
• 8:30pm - 1:00am: B-Dubs for dinner / drinks / karaoke
• 1:00am - 2:00am: Visit with friends / hang out
• 2:30am - 3:30am: Arrive home / browse the Internet / sleep

One caveat - I never did this schedule back-to-back. I could never function with one hour of sleep, so I only pushed the above schedule when I had the next day to sleep in, as I stated previously.

I did not always work a full day at Meijer; some shifts were shorter to accommodate a longer class schedule, but I believe my point is clear. I had some long days in college and I loved them. Working at 6:00am and later on drinking with friends at B-Dubs at midnight made my day feel sharply divided, and despite my fatigue by the late hours, I never retired early like I do so frequently now.

Having such a long day meant that I was able to see many friends in those twenty-three hours. Coworkers at Meijer (Dale, Jason), classmates at BGSU (names not applicable), old friends between trips (Lindsay, Diana), and my best friends at B-Dubs (Lacey, Jamie, Austin). Such social diversity was a bit overwhelming for me on some days, but these were definitely the most enjoyable days of my life. Since graduating college I see a pretty stable rotation of the same dozen or so people every week. While there is nothing wrong with my current friends (no offense intended), it is not the same awesome variety that I had in college.

I was also in much better shape with such long days. While I did tend to stock up on caffeine and junk food to keep me going throughout my day, constantly being on the move definitely provided me with exercise that I do not get with my routine 8-to-5 desk job. When I finally hit my pillow in the 3:00am hour my entire body was exhausted from head to toe. Sleeping in never felt as good as it did back then.

In between scurrying from place to place on my busy schedule, I found time do all sorts of little things. For example, I found time to write - fiction or Critically Correct - or play video games - Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance. I programmed, cranked out little pieces of code for computer science projects, or read a chapter or two of a textbook for whatever class required the reading.

From four in the morning until three in the morning a day later, I kept busy. I was exhausted when I woke up and exhausted when I went to bed, but in between I had a hell of a time, and if I could go back and redo all of those days I would not change a damn thing.

B3 out.