When Procrastination went wrong
How does procrastination play a role in your life?
It’s 6am on Wednesday morning and the timer started to run. In exactly 9 hours I would be taking a history test. Now, this was not just an ordinary history test. This was a 6 flowchart history test. I got dressed as fast as I could, ate, brushed my teeth, got all my school stuff together and headed out the door. It was 7:30. Exactly 7.5 hours until test time.
Let me explain why a sophomore modern history test is so hard. Our teacher created his own curriculum where he used flowcharts to explain all the events that took place throughout history. These flowcharts are composed of many text boxes that are connected by arrows. Each flowchart is also accompanied by a reading to explain how the flowchart works. Every single class our teacher would explain the flowchart and we would take notes. Some flowcharts are big and some are smaller, but no matter the size they are a pain in the butt to memorize. Now back to the story.
I walked into school at 8 am and I was on a mission. I had 1 study hall, 1 free period, lunch and uni period to memorize 6 flowcharts. That means that I would have to memorize 1 flowchart every 27.5 minutes. Easy right? Wrong. I came into my first hour class and sat in my usual seat next to Matthew. Matt had a worried look on his face so I asked him “what’s up?”. Our conversation went something like this:
Matthew: “Did you do the English reading”
Ethan: “What reading?”
Matthew: “The one about Jake going France”
Ethan: “Dude I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about”
Matthew: “Well apparently we have a quiz today”
Matthew: “Did you do the English reading”
Ethan: “What reading?”
Matthew: “The one about Jake going France”
Ethan: “Dude I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about”
Matthew: “Well apparently we have a quiz today”
Ethan: *silence*
Everything went downhill from there. All through 1st hour chemistry, I was thinking about how I would have time to study for everything. In order to study for the English quiz later that day I had to use up my first study hall reading. It was now 11:15 and time was running out. Looking back I definitely should have realized there was an English quiz that day, because my English teacher flat out told us there was going to be one. I guess I was too busy thinking about procrastination. :)
Later that day I had 6th hour and Uni period free back to back which meant I could lock down and study. I studied and studied and somehow by the time the 2:55 pm bell rang I was all ready to go with 6 flowcharts memorized. “Easy” I thought. I walked into the classroom whipped out my pencil and waited for my test to be handed to me. I took 2 deep breaths, looked down at my test, and my smile was instantly wiped off my face.
Mr. Butler, our teacher, decided that he was tired of his students only memorizing flowcharts so he decided to give a test that only tested things that were found in the readings. The readings that I did not read. I wrote down the information that I remembered from the lectures in class. I tried to sound knowledgeable in my answers, but that did not work out too well.
Needless to say I failed that test. You may think that this experience has changed me into an organized person who never procrastinates. Instead I was even more determined to find a better way to procrastinate for my history tests. I developed an even more effective way of procrastination. Maybe I am wrong, and maybe procrastination is not a good habit to get into and I realize that. Most times it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but what is life without a little risk?
I absolutely loved reading this because there is so much personality and its clearly you. Literally, I could see you going "easy" because you've said it to me so many times. I like that you used that small bit of dialogue because it broke up the text and was a nice little reliever from the paragraph format. Going back to my first sentence, it was very conversational and I felt like you were telling me this story in person. I also think it was good that there was a little bit of reflection throughout. Like it was very casual, which is good.
ReplyDeleteAlso you don't know how much I relate. I had first period and there were multiple occasions where I would study like six flowcharts the day of and somehow I'd manage to get most everything accurate. And my motto for procrastination is that "it'll all be fine." I literally live those words everyday and somehow it all works out.
Good Job.
Your essay did a really good job of conveying the thoughts in your head as you did your last minute flowchart memorization. I too did not start memorizing flowcharts until the day of the test and I thought that your description of the planning out when you could study period by period did a really great job of capturing the essence of the experience. You included a really great build up to the moment when you realized all of your flowchart memorization was in vain, and I felt the reveal to be particularly effective.
ReplyDeleteAwesome job Ethan! I really loved reading this essay. I got to hear a lot of your voice (literally and figuratively) and it was very engaging. However, I wanted to hear more about your thought process at the end. Why do you not care about the risk? Why did you write about this instance specifically, if it just helped you reinforce a habit? Maybe add a bit more reflection there :). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteNice essay. I could really hear your voice throughout the whole essay and I liked the way you added dialogue half way through. Your essay was also very engaging because I wanted to keep reading to the end to find out what would happen. I think you could add a little bit more reflection at the end of your essay or you could try to weave the reflection in as you tell the story about your flowchart procrastination.
ReplyDelete