You’re sitting in a class, pretending to take notes and nodding every five minutes, but your brain is somewhere else, probably halfway across the world. The hardest part of attending class isn’t always the material; it’s the endless stream of daydreams that turn your 50-minute class into a mental marathon of distractions and to-do lists.
Ultimately, these daydreams and random thoughts are the only thing that keeps us sane in the classrooms of our college careers. So, here’s a ranked list of daydreams or thoughts we’re all guilty of having!
- “What If I Just Dropped Out?”
-
You’re halfway through the class, barely catching the professor’s words, and suddenly, the idea strikes. What if I just dropped out? I mean, who needs a degree when you could start a YouTube channel about your “college experience?”
It’s probably way more interesting than this class. At first, it feels like a questionable thought, a freeing, almost glamorous idea. Maybe you could just leave everything behind and move to a coastal town, become a barista, and live off your YouTube earnings. Honestly, you could write a book about it in a few years: How I Left College to Follow My Dreams and Became a Youtuber.
- “Is Someone Reading My Mind?”
-
Whenever the professor calls on someone to answer a question, you wonder if they can hear the thoughts in your head. Is someone reading my mind right now? Like, how do they know that I just thought about what to eat for lunch? Every awkward silence between each question feels like they know exactly what’s going on in your brain.
It’s almost like you’re living in one of those movies where your internal monologue is somehow being broadcast to the entire class. Maybe I should start mentally rehearsing answers to random questions so it doesn’t look like I’ve completely checked out.
- “I Wonder What This Person Is Doing Right Now?”
-
This is the daydream that hits when the class is particularly mind-numbing. It starts innocently enough: I wonder what my friend is doing right now. But that thought spirals into a web of “What about my ex?” What’s that person from high school up to? You think about what they’re doing, what their life must be like right now, and whether they’re still secretly plotting against you or whether they’ve gotten their life together.
Before you know it, you’re lost in deep social media stalking, and you have no idea how the last 10 minutes of the class flew by. Who needs class material when you can live through the people you don’t even know anymore?
- “If the Wi-Fi Goes Out, Can I Go Back to Bed?”
-
You’re mindlessly scrolling through Canvas (or pretending to), and then it hits you: If the Wi-Fi goes out, can I leave? Like, genuinely, if the internet stops working, there’s no way I can function, right? The whole class is on an online platform. Without the Wi-Fi, what’s the point? I can go home and sleep.
- “It’s Almost Summer. Maybe I Do Need to Go Back to the Gym.”
-
It’s the end of the semester. It’s warm outside, and suddenly, you’re thinking about all the ways you could change your life once summer hits. Maybe this summer, I’ll start going to the gym again. I’ll go; I’ll commit. I could be one of those people who wakes up at 6 a.m., drinks green juice, and gets an 8 a.m. workout in before class. Maybe I’ll even join a yoga class and add Pilates somewhere.
At the end of the day, no matter how many times our minds wander into alternate realities during class, the truth is we’re all just doing our best to survive this college experience. Whether we’re fantasizing about dropping out and becoming YouTubers or wondering what someone is doing at that moment. Here’s to embracing the mental escapes and hoping we remember to pay attention before it’s time to graduate!
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest!