Day 65: All-Nighter Gone Wrong 

There’s a certain kind of confidence you feel at the start of an all-nighter—a misguided optimism that tells you, I can do this. I’ll power through and get it all done. That’s the lie I told myself at 9 p.m. last night. By 3 a.m., that confidence had evaporated faster than my energy, and things went downhill from there.

The trigger for this disaster? An impending deadline for our Marketing Strategies assignment. Our professor had dropped a surprise twist on us last week: not only did we need a comprehensive business proposal, but we also had to create a marketing video. Somehow, my group had procrastinated until the very last minute, leaving us with no choice but to stay up all night and hope for a miracle.

Since working in our dorms wasn’t an option, we camped out in the 24-hour study lounge at the library, which had become our unofficial war room. Amanda arrived with snacks, Yusof brought his laptop, and Faisal supplied his dubious “energy drink cocktail” made of Red Bull and instant coffee. Daniel, to everyone’s surprise, actually showed up on time and even volunteered to help edit the video. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ve got this software that makes it super easy.”

That should’ve been my first warning.

By midnight, the study lounge looked like a battlefield. Amanda was buried in a sea of paper, sketching out last-minute design elements. Yusof was frantically googling statistics to back up our claims. Faisal had moved from working on the script to singing ‘90s pop songs at full volume, much to everyone’s annoyance.

And Daniel? He spent two hours trying to figure out how to use the video editing software, only to announce, “Uh, guys… I think I accidentally deleted the footage.”

The room went silent. Amanda’s pen froze mid-sketch. Faisal stopped singing mid-chorus. Yusof looked like he was about to throw his laptop out the window.

“What?” I asked, my voice dangerously calm.

“Yeah, it’s gone. But, uh, don’t worry! I think I can recover it?” Daniel said, giving us a sheepish grin.

Spoiler: he couldn’t.

With the clock ticking, we had no choice but to reshoot everything. At 1:30 a.m., we found ourselves in the hallway outside the study lounge, staging scenes for our marketing video while trying not to wake up the other students working nearby. Amanda played the role of our fictional company’s CEO, delivering lines with a mix of frustration and exhaustion. Faisal and I took turns filming, while Yusof acted as the supportive customer in a suit jacket that was two sizes too big.

By 3 a.m., we were running on fumes. The snacks were gone, the energy drinks had lost their effect, and my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. Somehow, we managed to finish the video and submit the assignment by 6 a.m., but not without a few hiccups.

For instance, in one scene, Faisal accidentally recorded himself saying, “Why am I still awake?” loud enough to be heard over Amanda’s speech. And in another, Yusof tripped over a chair mid-shot, which we ended up keeping because we were too tired to re-film.

When I finally crawled into bed around 7 a.m., I felt a mix of relief and dread. Relief because it was over, and dread because I had an 8 a.m. lecture.

Lesson of the day: Procrastination is a cruel mistress, and all-nighters are not as glamorous as they seem in movies. Also, never trust Daniel with anything remotely technical again.