Out of all the stereotypes people associate with students, there is probably one that actually fits us best. No, it’s not the drug-addled, beer-swigging, out-every-night-until-you-can’t-remember-where-you-live perception. It’s not even the stereotype about us being as financially reliable as Greece. It’s the one which implies that we are, above all, lazy.
Now, on the cover of things, we don’t seem to do much to downplay this stereotypical view of student hood. I know I don’t. Most of my spare time is dreamt away quite literally in bed. And much of the time I’m awake I spend it figuring out how to get myself back to sleep.
Most of the student population seems to agree with this laid back lifestyle, especially on the weekends. If I happen to be catching an early train home on a Saturday morning (and by early I mean anything before 9am) I meet literally nobody as I walk towards the station. Well, I say nobody, because there’s always the few stumbling their way across the bridge, trying terribly hard to convince everyone they’re not doing the walk of shame. Walking through the Pavilions at this time in the morning is like walking through a ghost town. It’s eerie.
Now that I’ve been home for summer for a good few weeks I want to continue this lifestyle of doing absolutely nothing for most of the day. Now is it just me or does anybody else’s parents seem to have a moral objection to this? Every morning, just as I’m on the cusp of waking up, the shout of “get up lazy,” drifts over on the morning air. I could’ve just worked out how to time travel, or had finally gotten to the part of the dream where Megan Fox invites me to her hot tub and massage party. But I never get to find out what happens next. It’s a real shame.
And besides, it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. Like most of us during the holidays, I work for that extra bit of cash to keep me afloat during the first few weeks back. But even then, the older generations seem to think that I’m not contributing enough to society, despite the fact that I’m studying to become a journalist, which is arguably one of the most important jobs available.
I wonder if anyone else out there has come across this same form of parental judgement? If you have then it is best to just tell them the truth – that we need time to relax during the holidays, because once we get back to university in September we actually start working damn hard. Well, for some of the time anyway.