How to Survive Art School (Chapter 2)
As I sit here in my little homemade/makeshift office, I look up at the clock and realize my body thinks I'm still in art school. I guess that makes sense because I have been in school every fall for the past 20 years. The reason my body must think that I'm still in school is because I am awake and fully functional on 5ish hours of sleep. It's so early, my alarm clock hasn't even gone off yet. I wish I could say I was up all night working on something awesome for an amazing client, but I wasn't. Truth is, I was cleaning all night. But that isn't relevant to today's topic/chapter.
Sleep is one of the most important things you will miss as an art student. You will not be as rested as your fellow non-art studying classmates, except for maybe the computer science geeks, but they are robots anyways, (just kidding, I love my CS geeks). It's just a fact, you will lose countless hours of sleep because of your various projects. And there is no getting it back. The sooner you realize this fact, the better you will be and the more productive you will learn to be. When you realize that you are not going to be able to sleep the night before a critique because you "forgot" or "just need to get that one detail correct", you will be more productive on those crazy/stressful nights. The lack of sleep that comes with being an art student will be overwhelming at times, but just remember lesson one: breathe. It really is the key to everything. The other key to everything is:
Power naps are a vital and foundational part of an art student's diet. Power naps are about 15-20 minutes long, can be taken anywhere, and will generally refresh your mind and body. Sometimes all you'll need that night before critique is a quick little power nap. When you do take a power nap, there are a few things you have to do/remember. Sometimes, power naps can be dangerous. You have to make sure that you don't take too long of a nap because then you will be groggy and less productive than if you didn't take a nap at all. To prevent further exhaustion/grogginess, be sure to set at least two alarms and ask at least one of your fellow art students (that you trust) to make sure you are awake at a specific time. It'll help. Trust me. Just don't feel as if you can string a bunch of power naps together and get away with it. That is called sleeping. Which is something we were avoiding. The night after every critique, free your schedule and sleep, just go home after classes, climb into bed, and sleep until the morning. And then, when you wake up, take a shower you smelly hippy. Just kidding. You only smell if you are doing something in the film photography (where you use smelly chemicals), ceramics (where you play with dirt), sculpture (where you build big things and sweat because of it), and anything else that isn't graphic design or computer related, but it's okay because they are the most hipster of all and smell like something completely different. (Bashing it because I am one... a graphic design kid, not a hipster).
Anyways, if you take nothing else from this tirade, take this: sleep is important, but you will lose a lot of it. Power naps will help, but they also have their dangers. Sleep as long as you can, whenever you can, but make sure to always get your work done.
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