People shouldn’t make me feel guilty for missing a lecture because I’m hungover

Should I attempt to make it to my next lecture? Or should I spend the day watching Netflix?


Some students feel a pang of guilt when they realise they’ve slept through their 8am alarm and woken up just in time for an early afternoon snack, but not me. Maybe in hindsight, those five tequila shots weren’t a good idea as the club was closing at 3am, but they were at the time and now I’m paying for it. Why should I feel guilty for missing my 9am lecture when I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus?

Should I attempt to make it to my next lecture? Or should I spend the day lying in bed watching Netflix, drifting in and out of napping consciousness?  The latter seems much more appealing and it isn’t the end of the world if I miss one lecture.

They say uni is what you make of it. We pay nine grand a year to study and are expected to show up to lectures, I get that. However, I want to make the most of my uni experience and I’ll (hopefully) remember a sick night out with my mates, a lot more than a dull Thursday morning lecture on Chaucer. It’s my course, it’s my degree, therefore I get to choose when and what I miss.

If I did decide to turn up to my lecture nursing a horrific hangover I’d find it hard to concentrate anyway. My eye-lids would be struggling to stay open and my head would be pounding. What’s the point in showing up and not being able to take anything in or struggling to even make notes. I may as well have stayed in bed. There’s also the extra danger that you’re gonna chunder up last nights cheesy chips in the lecture hall and that would be embarrassing. Why would I risk that kind of humiliation in front of my whole course?

The only cure

Lastly, most of the lecturers understand me. They understand that sometimes I will be hungover, so they put the lecture content online. It would be a lot more productive to look over what I’ve missed when I’m up and running like a normal human again. I will be able to take the information in a lot better when I’m feeling healthier and less like death. When I’m hungover I won’t have anything relevant to contribute, therefore I’m not detracting from anyone else’s learning, I’m simply not turning up.

So don’t judge me for staying in bed when I’m hungover, I need this time to recover. Napping is the only thing that will get me through the day, not sitting through four hours of lectures while complaining and moaning to my course friends, who will surely get pissed off listening to the sound of me heaving every 20 seconds.