I found that school kicked your ass hard, and work was relatively a break. I got very good at Quake GL, Quake 2, and Unreal Tournament on work terms. When I was at startups we worked long hours, but we also goofed off a lot. At IT shops, life was 9-5.
I understand the tiredness of working an 8 hour day and wanting to do nothing afterwards, but I don't think that's unique co-op, that's just learning how to work an 8+ hour shift. Took a few years to get used to that - I fell asleep at work some afternoons!.. your body needs time to adjust to the new pattern, and you need to learn to structure your meals to fit your needs (eg. breakfast might be mandatory or not, at lunch don't eat foods that put you to sleep at 3pm, carbs for some, protein for others, get some exercise in which actually gives you more end of day energy).
What I would recommend is to actually take a break if you need to, like if you're losing your grip. I.e. take a term or two off, or do an extended work term. You'll be out of sync with your school friends, but if they're you're friends, they'll be in touch. I stretched a 4 month work term into an 8 month term once without any problems - just switched streams.
Eventually I dropped out and didn't finish my degree to work on Wall Street, but that's another story.
I found that school kicked your ass hard, and work was relatively a break. I got very good at Quake GL, Quake 2, and Unreal Tournament on work terms. When I was at startups we worked long hours, but we also goofed off a lot. At IT shops, life was 9-5.
I understand the tiredness of working an 8 hour day and wanting to do nothing afterwards, but I don't think that's unique co-op, that's just learning how to work an 8+ hour shift. Took a few years to get used to that - I fell asleep at work some afternoons!.. your body needs time to adjust to the new pattern, and you need to learn to structure your meals to fit your needs (eg. breakfast might be mandatory or not, at lunch don't eat foods that put you to sleep at 3pm, carbs for some, protein for others, get some exercise in which actually gives you more end of day energy).
What I would recommend is to actually take a break if you need to, like if you're losing your grip. I.e. take a term or two off, or do an extended work term. You'll be out of sync with your school friends, but if they're you're friends, they'll be in touch. I stretched a 4 month work term into an 8 month term once without any problems - just switched streams.
Eventually I dropped out and didn't finish my degree to work on Wall Street, but that's another story.