Ah, college.
It’s really easy to reflect on that little bubble of time where everything was possible and my only job was to study and make A’s. Often, I’ll idealize that window of time in my brain. The truth is, I worked really hard and played really hard.
And sometimes I played really hard while I worked really hard.
About eight years out from when I departed the collegiate womb, and it looks those Adderall pills have yet to lose popularity among students. Some people apprehensive about giving it the literal “college try” might wonder what’s the allure. And as someone who may or may not have had an actual prescription when she took them a fistful of times studying for physics finals – I’m here to share.
Uh. I meant share my experience…
Fckkin’ fiend.
Anyway, these little gems, as I recall, were more than mere performance enhancers.
They were mind changers. I’d reluctantly shuffle into the coffee shop or computer emporium like a woman to the gallows. And as the brilliant combo of Starbucks and ‘butrin hit, the rest of that walk was the confidence imbued strut of a scholar. I didn’t just feel like I could learn anything – I knew I could. And I wanted to.
For hours, learning was all that mattered. I was a human supercomputer – reading, remembering, and applying right away. In retrospect, had I done less drinking and dicking around on my newly found Myspace account, I might have had more to work with naturally.
As a chick, the fact that my appetite was suddenly suppressed was a plus too. Food came secondary to these transcendent brain meals on which I was gorging – page after page. I was Russell Crowe in Beautiful Mind. I was John Travolta in Phenomenon. I was…
…coming down.
Oh. The brutal part. The “was it worth it?” part. That big empty that follows the dopamine waterfall of any upper – even excess of coffee – leaves you with few choices.
You can remember how it feels enough to make it a rare event.
Or you can go politely ask your dealer doctor for more.
At 2 A.M.
When you both have a test the next day.
There’s obviously always the other options of injecting heroin into your eye or going the way of Kurt Cobain as depression hits (though I’m told the former often leads to the latter).
But if my false, vain pride hasn’t served me in any other way all my life, it at least motivated me to make my legal-amphetamine soirees specially restricted to study time. Yes, ironically, college was when I was my most well-behaved. The stretch of time after is another bedtime story so long it’d keep you up longer than… well… Adderall itself.
Experiment responsibly, kids!
Make sure your dealer has a white coat and letters after his name!