Even as a former Irish dancer, I’ve never been able to perfect the ultimate split. When I had the lucky chance to attend “Luzia,” a Mexican-inspired Cirque du Soleil show in San Jose on Feb. 16, I was excited to witness the talent I’d wanted to achieve as a performer. For about two hours, my dorm-mates and I applauded, gasped and cheered for the dozens of acrobats, musicians,and actors who were part of the cast.  

I knew before seeing the show, I wanted to make my experience relatable and interesting to the students who only saw snippets via SnapChat or Instagram. After looking through through the videos a few days later, I realized that “Luzia” not only traced the journey of a man in search of water, but also a chaotic day of a typical Stanford University student. I retell “Luzia” in GIFs, below:

1. Waking up Monday morning after a late night

After finally shutting off the light at 3:32 a.m. early Monday morning, you wake up to your phone alarm, which has been loudly beeping for at least eight minutes. You’ve only gotten about four hours of sleep and have to be in class for the presentation you haven’t practiced. The comforter is halfway off the bed, the pillow is nowhere to be seen and your limbs are at strangely odd angles you didn’t know were possible for a normal human being.

2. Beating the bike rush and getting to class on time

You’ve got 10 minutes to spare until class starts.  Belting out the long version of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” while in the shower wasn’t such a good idea after all, it seems. Grabbing your backpack and shoes, you spend another five minutes trying to remember where you parked your bike the night before but soon find it locked to a tree. Finally, you race to History Corner, weave in and out of slow traffic and still have someone tailing too close for comfort.

3.  Winging a 20 minute presentation you haven’t practiced

You open the door to the classroom door slowly, trying not to let the world know you’re late. It doesn’t work, because the professor checks his watch and pulls out the seat right next to him.  About halfway through class, it’s time to give your presentation on the evolution of photosynthetic bacteria with unpronounceable names. Forgetting whether the PowerPoint is in your Google Drive or in some obscure folder, you waste almost five minutes searching for it. You find it and speed through the presentation, spewing irrelevant information and butchering every scientific name, but you finish at the exact minute class ends.

4. Debating whether a nap is beneficial or beneficial

You head back to the dorm before lunch, since your next class is not for another two hours.  With barely four hours of shuteye the night before, you contemplate taking a nap. There’s a physics p-set due the next day that you haven’t started and a PWR draft that needs major editing, but how can you work on anything with droopy eyelids and a nodding head?  You can’t, so you’ve got to take a catnap. The professors and your body will thank you later for making such a mature decision. Collapsing onto your still-unmade bed, you fall asleep almost instantly.  

5. Waking up for the second time and realizing the nap lasted three hours

Because you were sleep-deprived for the last week (or really the entire quarter), you sleep through the six set alarms and miss more than half of your PWR class.  Since it’s no use to go now, you take the time to edit the 10-page draft you wrote in one sitting last week.  When looking up the uses of the Oxford comma, your friend sends a cat video, and 20 minutes later you’re 134 weeks deep into your friend’s cousin’s famous boyfriend’s Instagram feed. You can’t remember where you may or may not need an Oxford comma, but you log into Netflix instead to finish season one of “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”

6. Getting some work done and celebrating

With an exorbitant amount of self-control to stop yourself from starting season two, you manage to edit a few pages of the draft, complete the first half of the p-set and reply to Grandma’s email from the day before – this calls for celebration. After a healthy dinner of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and vanilla ice cream, you crash your friend’s Boggle tournament in the lounge and convince them to head to TAP for some more healthy food. While amidst a philosophical debate about Beyonce’s expected twins, you realize you actually had a pretty productive day, and you hope tomorrow’s just as great.  

Contact Emily Schmidt at egs1997 ‘at’ stanford.edu.