All Nighters

Day 225 / 366

For normal people, a “night out” means spending the night out, probably partying with friends. When I was in college though, that term was used to describe staying up all night to get shit done. “Night out maarna” as we referred to it in Hindi meant pulling an all-nighter.

I think that’s the thing I miss the most about being young. Pulling all-nighters on a whim, with no consequences. We would stay up all night trying to finish a project, get it done by around 7 AM, go down to the mess to have breakfast and then start the next day as if nothing happened.

And it was not always about work. Sometimes it was for fun as well. In my last years of college, we were addicted to playing poker. We would sit at around 9 PM on a Friday and keep playing till breakfast on Saturday.

Why am I thinking about this now? well two reasons. Firstly I saw that a young twitch streamer is trying to break the world record of staying awake for the longest time. I think he has been at it for 10 days now. That made me feel old. I tried to console myself saying that ok they are teenagers, but if they can do 10 days, surely I can do 1 at 30 right?

And secondly, I saw this tweet by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is 53 years old. I am 29. If he can do it, why can’t I?