Of all the abilities I’ve developed over the last few years, the ability to not be stressed because of exams is the one I benefit the most from. Other abilities, like the ability to drink large amounts of beer, or the ability to dance the troika has given me less. I remember the olden days of anxiety, when I would be almost paralysed because my exams were coming.
I especially remember one night just before my early european history exam back in 04. I woke up, bathed in sweat because I had dreamt that on the day of my exam, everyone else had recieved their tasks in advance so that they could prepare themselves, while I myself was completely unprepared. Being ignorant of something like that would be a real nightmare. But fortunately, a nightmare was all it ever was. When I walked into the kitchen that morning, still a bit shaky from the dream, Martine, who was my neighbour entered. She was just as shaky as I was, having dreamt that Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, who was the minister of culture at the time, had given the exams a cultural reform, so that all early european history exams should be written as ballads, and everyone would get marked according to how well the ballad genre was mastered.
During the last five days, I’ve realised that I might be a bit stressed out after all, and although my mind refuses to be aware of this, I think my body notices. And when my body decides to tell me that spending all my late nights bent over a book isn’t healthy, it doesn’t do it quietly. About a week ago, I lost my ability to sleep. Simultaneously, my body decided that all it’s old food allergies should come back at once. Thus, I lay awake until five in the morning, and when I finally fall asleep, I wake up because of stomach cramps. When you’re really tired, locating pain is rather hard, so I wake up because something’s wrong, and I don’t know what it is. Thank you body. That’s not the way to make me relax. It’s actually the only way to make me stressed.
