Last week was Hell Week at Alma College. It was the last week of classes for the semester and absolutely everything was due. EVERYTHING. IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY CLASSES.
I knew it was coming. We all do. We get our syllabi at the beginning of the semester and think, “Wow, there’s so much time between now and then to get these projects done. No need to start them early. That would just be more stress than it’s worth.”
WRONG. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
As least for me.
I’m not someone who likes to start things like papers or projects too far in advance because then I just worry myself prematurely about it, or I obsess over it from the time I finish it until the time it’s actually due weeks later, wondering if I did it correctly.
So I never do things ahead of time. Maybe I like the adrenaline of finishing big projects just before they’re due. Sometimes I cut it far too close though.
For example, take my eight-page Shakespeare paper. It was due at 9:30 on Friday morning. I finished it, and the annotated bibliography due with it, at 9:20. I had stayed up until 2:30, decided to take a short nap that ended up lasting until 7:00 AM, leaving me with five pages yet to write with at least five cited sources throughout my argument AND I needed to shower.
Long story short, I didn’t end up showering until 12:45 PM Friday afternoon because I just didn’t have the time. I felt gross.
But I also felt accomplished. Even though my one hour nap turned into four and a half hours, I still managed to complete my paper. Is it my best work? Probably not, but I worked really hard on it.
I’d also written another eight-page paper on Tuesday with an annotated bibliography, had two presentations, had a group project, and had regular homework assignments and reading on top of that. It was a really hard week, and I knew that going in.
“If I make it to the end of the week, I’ve made it in life,” I joked with my boss.
“I just want to make it to the end of this week alive,” I told my partner.
“Just one more paper,” I muttered to myself Thursday night. “Then I’m done and I can go home and see my family. You can do this.”
“You can do this.”
I did sacrifice sleep, yes, and in hindsight, I probably should have begun at least doing research for my big papers a few weeks ahead of time. But will I do it next time? Probably not.
Part of college is procrastination, I think. Learning how to work under stress and with deadlines and setting small goals for yourself to help keep you motivated is, I think, are some of the most important skills you learn in college.
I could do without the extra stress though. That’s for sure. I do it to myself, and I lose sleep over it, but I did it. I made it through Hell Week and you can too. Stay strong. You’ve got this.
