the rodeo

In crowded halls, ivy clad, walk the sleepless zombies - the walking dead. They’ve come to grapple, the chosen few, in trials by pen and pencil too. Long ago we quietly agreed to trade studies and stress for a lives of ease. The fire of competition burns within, a pyre fueled by challenge and adrenaline. We’ve been grinding from morning’s light to dark midnight, fueled largely by tasty caffeine's bite. Sleep’s a distant memory, that’s been swapped for all-nighters, notecards and highlighters. Professors who have taught us now plant briar-like, trickster-questions, to try and fraught us. Have we synthesized it all - the labs, lectures and quotes, the chapters, quizzes and notes? The hours we’ve spent, dissecting texts, parsing equations, crafting essays - pay off now. Or don’t - the clutter of fact, theory, and tensors will separate the scholars from the pretenders. But fear not, dear reader, for we’re tough, seasoned cowgirls and this is just another rodeo. True, we chew erasers not tobacco and ride desks or lab stations, not bucking broncos. But some are thrown, bruised and scarred - finding their future careers discarded. We’re required to hand-write our test essays out, a trap that negates AI with age-old foolscap. We know the challenge, we’ve studied and crammed, to tackle the hurdle of ‘top-tier’ exams. Beyond the stress beacons the sweet release - of holiday parties and presents that please. But perhaps the sweetest possible tease, is the promise of slumber and weeks study free. . Webster: foolscap = a piece of paper