The Fifteen Minute Gap

I call my Tuesdays and Fridays, my crazy days. From 11:00 a.m. to 6:15 p.m., I have back-to-back classes in all different buildings. From ECC to Moriss Hall, to POSCO and then back to ECC, these 15 minutes were like a countdown to my doom especially as a new student navigating the colossal campus at Ewha. It’s during these days where I curse the classes I failed to register for and constantly fight thefeeling to call for a sick day (because I’m sick and tired of climbing up and down the many hills and stairs of Ewha).

During my first few days with my schedule, I was almost sprinting from building to building right as the professor would dismiss the class, the laptop in my backpack clanking around. By then, I would be breaking out in a cold sweat, trying to keep my heavy breathing as quiet as possible while I ride the packed elevator to the fifth floor of POSCO (if the Ewha gods allow). I would then proceed to go back to the dormitories where I put myself through the nth round of my cardio of the day. This put together made the convenience store dinner I’d buy much more delicious and 8-10 hours of sleep I’d allow myself like being put to sleep by an anesthesiologist.

It was probably only in my second week of classes where, in a lazy trance, I told myself “I’ll get there when I get there.” Was I worried about being late? Yes. Did I still try a new shortcut that was told to me by my EwhaMate? Also yes. And as I walked with my earphones blasting the then new Kali Uchis album in my ears, I was finally able to get a proper look at the scenery around the path to my classrooms. The trees that had cute scarves on them, the buildings that were decorated with something that I could only identify as ivy, and the uneven ground that may have been the cause of the numerous foot injusries that I’ve observed within my first few weeks at Ewha – it was all so...healing.

I continued this with all my classes, until it progressed into what I call my “hot girl walks.” This was first caused by me forgetting that a class was to be conducted online as I sat in the empty classroom it was supposed to be in. I decided to go back to the dormitory to rest, but my mind was too much in that “study zone” for me to sleep or space out. I needed some external noise so that I could focus, as weird as it may sound. It was during these walks where I learned a lot about this foreign environment I put myself in. I saw how people don’t really look up from their phones while they walk, rushing to a destination that I will probably never know. I also noticed how some cars don’t use turn signals, whch irked me even as a person without a license. But despite some annoyances, I slowly started looking forward to these walks, even deciding in advance what song I’d play or what I’d think of. The fifteen minutes beacme my me time, where I could listen to how I was feeling and recover even for a short while.

Is the fifteen minute gap enough? Probably not, but with those fifteen minutes you can observe so much – the group of girls talking about where they should have dinner and drinks after class, the person on the phone seemingly talking sweetly to someone on the other end of the line, and the people like me, walking to whereever they were headed. Those fifteen minutes can tell you a lot, and for me, it told me that even without rushing, I’ll still get where I need to be.

Oh, and yes, I did make it in time for that class.