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How UberEATS Changed My Life: Saving the Late-Night College Student

This article is written by a student writer from the Spoon University at Fairfield chapter.

Being an insomniac in college is not what one would call, ideal, to say the least. The long and restless nights mixed with all the usual workload and stress that college brings spells disaster for students that suffer from this lack of sleep. Lack of sleep on a college campus can lead to multiple issues such as weight loss, anxiety, etc. I have faced this issue and do still struggle with it throughout my college experience, but UberEATS saved me to say the least.

As a student who consistently fights through this day to day, I find myself wide awake at times where a normal human being would be fast asleep. While restless, I would lay there in complete silence not having eaten in hours, waiting till my eyes shut and my body would finally go to rest.

At Fairfield, restaraunts do not operate how they do back in my hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey. While Bayonne eateries cater to my needs by being up till three in the morning on (And who doesn’t love a buffalo chicken pie and mozzarella sticks in the middle night?). Fairfield’s restaurants usually close at around 10 to 11 PM, leaving me to wine and dine on a daily dose of a bottle of Coke and a bag of Fritos on a weekday night. Not what I would call a five-star delicacy to say the least. 

This routine of soda and chips at the wee hours of the morning was doing no favors for me at all because it would leave me even more restless and exhausted the next day when it was time to (hopefully) get up for class and start my day.

This hazardous cycle led me to losing 12 pounds in a matter of days during a very stressful time of my freshman year. Friends came up to me knowing that I looked and felt like shit and kept asking the same questions. 

“How much you sleep you get?” About an hour or two, I got lucky last night.

“How many times you eat yesterday?” About twice, eight hours apart. 

It was the same thing every day. Soon enough, the days blended into each other with myself running ragged and starved. 

This appetite of eating combined with all the nuances of freshman year at Fairfield destined to break me and I needed to switch it up desperately for the upcoming semester as a sophomore. 

But then…a lifeline came to me in the distance, and it was UberEats saving my appetite and my sanity.

It was introduced to me right around the middle of the fall semester this year and at first, I was expecting the same old, “gotta order Domino’s when it gets past 11 because nothing is open” routine, so I was left holding my breath.

But one night, while up again in the dead of night and again, starving, I checked the app out of sheer curiosity. This curiosity turned to upmost joy as I found actual places were open at 2 AM. From burgers to Mexican to diner food, the options were endless…there was actually real food I could eat. 

No more starving nights.

No more vending machine adventures.

Just a full stomach and a happy college student. 

I thought Christmas was good, but having a full stomach in the middle of the night beat out opening gifts like nobody’s business. 

So this began a loving relationship between UberEATS and I as the both of us traversed through the food world leaving my stomach full and my wallet empty.

 But I would not have it any other way to be honest. I even made friends with my Uber delivery guy because he picked up for me on multiple occasions during finals. (His name was Mark, guy was great!) 

This revelation that I experienced this past fall semester made me realize the power of food in college. No matter how bad times can get, whether it is your roommate or your grades are struggling, a couple clicks can lead you to good food at any time.

And as we all know at Spoon here, good food can a put a smile on anyone’s face. 

Sean Ahern

Fairfield '19