Ah, Christmas. The time of season for Jesus, indulgent feasts created for the purpose of completing weight gain goals, presents, end of year reflection, caroli- wait a second. All this stuff only happens after one dreaded week. Finals week. How ironic, that us students must spend our week before Christmas dreading the impending doom of test taking and frantic studying, then spend our break dreading the results of the week-long frenzy.
I, your beloved Story Spotlight Columnist, had suffered severely last semester. My school journey had been quite the enjoyable ride until the beast that goes by the name of “Procrastination” pounced on me. (Its real name is Destroyer-of-Students-and-Their-Grades). Even at this moment as I write this, I can offer no rhyme nor reason as to when or why I was attacked in such a manner. Alas, I could not shake it off. It stalked me everywhere I went. Whenever I crept silently to the “Assignments” section of my student account, it followed and deviously distracted me with random articles, BTS videos, my sketchbook, and Pinterest.
Each time I successfully clambered to the finish line of one assignment, three more that I hadn’t finished showed up in the vicinity. I was fighting a losing battle and it was getting bad. Well, things couldn’t possibly get any worse. Right? Right?? Dead wrong. Absolutely, one hundred percent wrong. Since the start of semester, “finals” had just been lurking in a distant, un-swept corner. Now, with Christmas shining brighter with each passing day, a dark cloud arose out of my surroundings. The finals were coming, and they were armed.
Too late, I realized that Procrastination had got me good. It had pinned me down under invisible threads of time and space so that its true master could devour me and my grades whole. I was done for. My vision began to fade, and the light of Christmas which had once burned so brightly, dimmed. But only dimmed. There was still hope! That’s what frantic emails to my teachers, last minute cramming, and waiting to take the test until three hours before it’s due is for. To my horror, though, Procrastination had a stronger grip on me than ever before. Each time I tried to get some work done, it dragged me back, leaving me no choice but to gather all my willpower for the final countdown. That is, those last ten minutes before I jumped into the unknown brimming with danger.
Luckily for me, the earlier work I had done rescued me from truly falling prey to my finals. As each test was turned in with sweaty palms and frayed nerves, a sigh of relief was breathed when I saw the scores of what had been graded already. I was safe. I would be safe. I could enjoy my Christmas, forget everything I learned first semester, and gain those twenty pounds without a care in the world. Definitely. Second semester will be nothing to worry about. Right?
On a more serious note, procrastination can be detrimental to your studies and future. Getting into a habit of delaying things to the last possible second will haunt you forever if you don’t make any effort to get out of it. I think of it as a kind of quicksand – if you do nothing or just struggle and flail with it mindlessly, you’ll never escape it and it will just suck you in deeper. However, if you stay calm, think rationally, and act wisely, you can and eventually will be able to get out. I had a lot of trouble with procrastination this year, and I hope that 2022 will be a (mostly) procrastination free year for me. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Extra note: I know this will be posted after Christmas, so the timing will be off. Nevertheless, an end of year reflection plus a summary of finals makes for quite the enjoyable article.
Original photo credit: https://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/quicksand-its-real-and-dangerous/538916.html