Just Do It Already!

The letter that represents my greatest mistakes is the letter P.  P stands for Procrastination.  Many times throughout my life I have procrastinated a school project or chore and it has come back to bite me.  Even though I had done it in the past, I would just keep putting it off until the absolute last minute.  I never learned because I had always been able to finish it in time.  Here’s the story of when I finally couldn’t make up for it.

In the week and a half before my paper was due, I thought about it little to none.  I’ll start it tomorrow, I thought to myself.  Tomorrow grew into the next day and then the day after that.  As the due date drew nearer my lackadaisical attitude continued.  Finally, it was the night before.  After my practice and afternoon snack, I sat at my desk to begin my homework.  I should have finally started writing my paper then, but I did math instead.  A couple hours later I thought I was done with my homework, but wait, my paper!  Already 9:00 in the evening I began to say to myself that I really should just sit down and grind this paper out.  Then, I saw a twitter notification pop up on another tab.  I’ll just check twitter for a couple minutes then start my paper, I thought to myself.  The minutes went by slowly at first then flew by, before I knew it it was 10:30.

“Goodnight Jack,” my mother said as she opened my bedroom door and came in to my room.

“‘Night Mom,” I replied, standing up to hug her goodnight.

“Make sure you get some sleep,” she said before closing my door and walking down the hallway to her room.

I said to myself, “I’ll write it in bed.”  I went to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and get ready for bed.  I crawled into my bed with my laptop to finally start my paper.  I put my headphones on to listen to some music to help me focus.  I couldn’t though.  I’ll watch one episode on Netflix I said, to get my mind off of it for a little while.  What was I thinking! My mind had been off of it for a long while, I needed to just start writing.  Anyways, after one episode, it was nearly midnight and my word doc was still blank save for my name and date in the top left corner.  I was starting to feel tired.  As I tried to turn coherent thoughts and ideas into words on my computer, my eyelids started to feel heavier.  I forced them open, mentally slapping myself awake.  It only lasted a couple minutes before they were drooping again.  Again, I tried to fight off the fatigue.  However, it was a fight I was destined to lose.  My body and mind, exhausted from intense athletic practices all week and a not-so-healthy sleep schedule, started to give out on me.  I was only halfway done with my paper.

I dreamt I heard a distant noise.  It was getting closer, louder, I jolted awake to the sound of my alarm blaring in my face.  I scrambled to turn it off, hitting the snooze button and then the off switch.  I rubbed my eyes and upon opening them saw my laptop next to me.  Crap! my essay!  I couldn’t possibly finish it.  I screamed at myself in my head, What the heck Jack, why didn’t you just do it already! 

Walking to English class, I felt a pit of anxiety in my stomach.  Entering the door, I saw everyone else with their crisp, white, freshly printed essay.  I sat down, opened my bag and prayed that some magic fairy had typed up and printed an essay and snuck it into my backpack while I wasn’t looking.  This, sadly, had not occurred.

“Where’s your essay Jack?” my teacher questioned.

“Uuugh, I didn’t exactly finish it?” I replied softly.  He had really asked me in front of everybody.  I had not expected that.  I was embarassed and I could feel my face flushing as my peers chuckled at my situation.  I felt ashamed and guilty.  I was supposed to be a good student.  I should have just written it.  Why didn’t I just do it when I had the chance?  Instead, I had let my teacher, myself, and all those who put their faith in me.  I couldn’t let this happen again.  I had to show willpower and discipline if I was going to achieve my goals.  Procrastinating would not get me very far in life.  I would, from now on, focus and do my work when I had the chance. Otherwise, well, I don’t want to think about otherwise.