“Forget giving up chocolate for Lent this year,” said Adam Smith, a first-year Ohio native. Smith decided to give up something a little bit more intense. College. He decided to take a 40-day leave from school. “At first it was just a joke. Then the more I thought about it, the more I thought, why not?” Smith shared.
Monday marks Smith’s first week back to classes, and it has been a journey for him. “Two of my professors still skipped over my name for attendance, they must not have realized Lent was over and I’m back,” said Adam.
He has nearly seven weeks of lecture notes, homework and studying to catch up on. Smith reported that the hardest part of this week was catching up on group projects and scheduling times to take the exams he missed. “It’s so cool going to a school where professors are so willing to work with students,” he said.
Smith’s plan of attack is to make a long checklist of assignments and work diligently on assignments until he is caught up again. He said, “I have scheduled a lot of meetings with my professors, and my agenda is pretty booked. But that’s okay because I haven’t written anything in it for weeks.”
Students in his classes wonder how he is pulling off this spontaneous decision. His room mate, Blake Clark, thought the idea was crazy. “I guess it was cool having the room to myself for a month, but I don’t get how you just don’t come to school for 40 days,” Clark said.
Smith reported that his parents were very supportive of his decision and happily welcomed him home for the 40 days. Since Smith is from out of state and an only child, he believed his parents were grateful to have him home again. “I had a lot of time to spend with my pets and some of my high-school friends; it just felt like a really prolonged spring break,” Smith said.
“I don’t think I would recommend for anyone else to do this; it was worth the experience, but I am very behind,” said Smith. He claimed that most of the faculty who teach his classes say their biggest concern is catching him up on the tests and quizzes he missed so that they can give them back to their other students.
Since returning to campus, Smith has practically lived in the library. He said, “I don’t want to say I regret it, but I will for sure never do this again. And I probably won’t ever miss a class period again, either.” Smith also shared that he wished he had more college experience before taking such a long leave, since it was only his second semester.
Photo by Alex Carey
(Part of “The Plebian”—April Fools Edition)
Leave a Reply