The Gray Mist of Self-Centralization

High school has become a daily routine, not just for me, but for most students at school. It’s always the same hassle to wake up the morning after staying up to to study for a test or doing mechanical homework. Then comes our daily morning routine. And close to follow it is commute. And when we finally get to school, the spare minutes are more studying or comparing answers for a worksheet we all guessed miserably on. When the first bell sounds, we move like zombies to our first hours, trying to wake our miserable brains up so that we can somehow make it through the day. The bell dismi- the teacher dismisses us every hour, saved by the bell is no longer an excuse. That passing time is spent asking first hour AP Chem students or AP English students how the test or essay was, and how much studying was required to pass it. By the time the third hour dismissal bell rings, our stomachs are growling, angry at us for keeping them empty for so long. And as the A Lunch stomachs march off habitually, the C Lunch stomachs are left to glare in jealousy.
Fourth and fifth hour usually pass without unusual occurrences besides the usual tests or quizzes, and sixth hour grudgingly approaches. As we walk into class that hour, the school seems to mock us, smirking at our mildly optimistic faces as the end of the school day approaches. But it does so with good reason, for it knows of our after-school clubs, or our sports practices, or extracurriculars outside of school. It knows that we won’t rest for a while. 
When we finally get home at five or six, sometimes seven or eight PM, our couches and beds beckon us, whispering, “A little nap won’t hurt.” Then we see our desks, still piled from the homework we pushed back the day earlier, and we elapse into our mechanical zombie modes again, to attempt to finish our duties as students, and push any hopes of getting the recommended amount of sleep out of our heads. 

A few days ago, when I read the speech “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace, I was somewhat taken back when I read that “[the] graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what ‘day in, day out’ really means.” However, this speech was given in 2005, and I think we can all agree that much has changed since then. So much, that the “day in, day out” that once belonged solely to adults has become the students’ as well. In today’s day and time, it has become much more important for us to keep in mind that we have to stay “conscious” of the fact that we aren’t the only zombie-brains, that our unfortunate peers and teachers often share the same fate.