Where is my home? In the library.

A typical exam period day starts with a short breakfast and first coffee. At 8:00 I am heading to the library, which only opens at 8:30, but if I want to be sure I’m going to get my favourite spot on the ground floor, I have no other choice than to participate in the so-called German run. German run consists of students, mostly of German nationality, blocking the entrance of the library from approximately 7:50 in the morning. I usually join them in around 20 minutes and fully commit to the fight. The situation when the library door open can be compared to vultures swooping down on their prey. One would forget for a moment that this is a university facility with university students. This all, however, happens under the pretext of good exam results.

Once everyone is inside the library, the primary competitiveness changes into empathy. After all, we all are in this together – tired, stressed out and hungry. There are, however, certain types of students who make the library their home before the exams. Firstly, there are students who have obviously confused the library with a restaurant or other place suitable for social events. These people then enthusiastically discuss the topics of their upcoming exams, unfortunately, they forget that they are in a so-called quiet room, where only whispering is possible. The second type is formed by students who are passively aggressive in their reactions to the behaviour of the previously mentioned group, because they are really struggling to learn something. Due to the shortage of spots, the students who occupy a whole table and then disappear for the whole morning are hated the most. The last category is then completed by students who pretend to be perfect and hard-working but after a closer look at the screen of their computer, they are clearly shopping new clothes all day on aliexpress.com.

Difficult to say which group I belong to but probably to the second one. Students who are noisy and do not respect the library rules make me angry. Especially when it is my tenth day in the library in a row, the level of caffeine in my blood is dangerously rising and I live on baguettes from the library kiosk. To not exaggerate, I personally consider this almost holy place an inseparable part of my student life. Even though it becomes my second home every second month due to the exam preparation, it offers me an ideal environment for studying where I can focus. Unlike studying at home, there is no bed in the library which would normally tempt me to take a nap. Also, during the exam period, majority of local students is in the library, thus most of my friends and classmates are at hand and we can revise together or take a break in the library garden.

In the evening the library becomes more and more empty. That is when the students start to lose their will and motivation. Although many people have called me insane, I always stay until midnight, because I am the most productive at that time. What is it compared to the libraries in England though, which are, according to my friends, open non-stop and include showers as well. Unfortunately, we don’t have this luxury in Maastricht. But despite all the student sorrows I am grateful for the local library and I am going to miss it next semester when I am in Turin on Erasmus.