It’s not so easy to be away from home, not only because of missing home, but also because of being independent from your mom. People whose moms throw water on their faces when they do not wake up might be facing a lot of difficulty in waking up at Exeter. Waking up is one of the greatest challenges faced by students. Staying at Exeter, away from our families is a test on whether or not we can live without our mothers.

At home in Pakistan, every morning, our mom wakes us up so we do not have to worry about being late for school. But here in Exeter, we are independent and we have to depend on an alarm, or a smartphone or a clock. If the charging fails or battery of our alarm runs down, we will be doomed.

But not me. I set 8 alarms in the morning. Yes, 8.

I put 4 alarms on my smartphone and 4 on my watch, which I wear while sleeping, but I am still finding difficulty in waking up. I set them for different times between 4 and 5 a.m. Usually I don’t get up but sleep lightly until 7:15 when I wake up for good – without an alarm.

Hassaan Ulhaq, also from Pakistan, has another method. Unlike other Exonians, he is not totally independent from his mother. His mother calls him every morning at 7:30 a.m. to wake him up and he also puts an alarm on his smartphone. Despite the huge time difference of Pakistan and The United States, his mother still calls him. On Monday, the 11th of July, Hassaan’s mother was busy, so she could not call him, and unfortunately he did not wake up on time — he was late for class.

Oliver Zoubek, from New Jersey, uses a very simple and old strategy for waking up. He just puts one alarm on his clock, and he easily wakes up. I guess he is not dependent on his mom, and even in New Jersey he wakes up by himself.

By the end of this month, everyone should be able to wake up by setting just one alarm, and without having their mothers wake them, because we will get used to living alone and hopefully, waking will not be a problem anymore.

I used to be dependent on my mother but since I came here, I can manage on waking by myself, a little.