Screen reader caption for blind or visually impaired people: the opening sentence reads “Man, staying up all night doesn’t affect you?”, the monster doll Glen from 2004 movie “Seed of Chucky” replies: “Nope, look at me, fresh as a daisy”. Photo credit: @memers.media
What follows is Part III of an email I sent on 15th November 2020 to the youngest of my cousins, Riccardo. He had just started his first year of university after graduating through the pandemic, we had lost our legendary grandpa Nonno Alfredo just few months prior, and the family would not be reunited for the next two years. So, an email was my best available means to pass on my tradition of giving The Talk to “the little ones”, as they ventured to university as future first generation graduates. This part is also dedicated to another former “little one” among the recipients of this email, a.k.a. my little sister. She would be happy if you could show some Instagram love and $UPPORT to LuchaYSiesta, a community-run and community-funded center for women escaping domestic violence and their children, active since 2008 in our parents’ neighborhood with a library, a tailoring workshop, a garden and a room for screenings, assemblies and other events – I’ll write with and about them soon because they’re facing eviction threats for the 10th time or so >_<
[A necessary premise of collaboration vs. competition …] starting from year 1 of uni, it appeared clear to me and a certain group of colleagues – some still friends now – that you can’t get anywhere by yourself, and that competing makes no sense. In the spirit of unity, during each exam session we would split the work and make a strategic attack plan: lesson with no mandatory attendance were equally shared, notes, tapes, talents and fears have always been pooled, Bolshevik. This, and only this, has carried all of us till the end sane – excluding pre-existing pathologies and peculiarities, and/or heavy drugs matters.
Team up, sweet pea! 
ALL-NIGHTERS
Shit happens, unfortunately. So, regardless of all your best will and independently from you, you may find yourself pulling an all-nighter or [hm] helping someone writing their thesis in 48 hours. There are several ways to pull an all-nighter, someway or another, I’ve pulled a couple of ones and this is what I’ve learned:
– NEVER ALONE : as I’ve repeated already several times, unity is strength and this is never as true as in all-nighters’ case. To be in a group means sharing the workload, sharing the stress, and usually have some fun with joyful blasphemy.
– THE RIGHT PLACE : in order to avoid having to move or facing eviction at 2:00 AM, make sure that the place you choose is “all-nighter-friendly”. No kids or pets around, no roommates coming back home annoyingly drunk in the wee hours, no anxious parents interrupting the work and demanding reports at 1AM on why is it that you got to study last minute and-of-course-it’s-CAUSE-YOUNEVERLISTENTOME! etc. etc.
– THE RIGHT FUEL : Provided that your all-nighter will start after dinner, and that food (better savory or fruits) be a constant presence in strategic position other than your working table … you’ll want to be easy with coffee. It must be rationed cautiously. Particularly efficient is the ritual called *Caffè dello Studente* [Italian for: The Student’s Coffee] between 1:30-2AM. This is just a regular coffee prepared by replacing water with coffee in the bottom part of your moka machine [I found a 2 minutes video about it]. The sages would assume two slices of whole wheat bread before consumption, as a “buffer” for this highly corrosive liquid. Ideally you want to take it sugar-free, because sugars have that “down-phase” … but since it tastes like mud and gasoline, you can submerge it with cane sugar counter-balance the down-phase with stress and the existential crisis you may have around 3AM. You know, the one in which you and your companions hug and cry, howling “That [insert appropriate insult] has to die a painful death!”. And then you go back to work.
– THE RIGHT MUSIC : I have been curating various playlists along my study years. One of them has been made with the purpose of studying after 11PM [link to Spotify]. Then there is an instrumental one that I play while reading, and another one I called “Queen of Badassdom” to hype up when I’m on the low. [a new one I devised more recently is for each song to be played on repeat, it’s called REPEAT|repeat|reapIT|trip-it … continues …]
Go to Part I | Go to Part II | This is Part III
noprofitideas.org 