It seems like the semester just started and then all of a sudden: final exams are just around the corner. All feelings of relaxation evaporates and anxiety settles. With only few weeks left before finals it's time to submit numerous papers. The hardest challenge is on its way, so may the odds be ever in your favor!
When studying at an American university, professors usually assign both a final exam and a final paper. At the beginning we think that the paper will be a piece of cake compared to an exam, however we soon realize how naïve that perception is. Writing papers is a hard and time-consuming activity that leaves students miserable up until its deadline.
JCU’s library is usually quite empty until finals season begins. During this time, the library gets so packed that we must circle around it twice to find a spot. It's almost like finding a parking spot at the mall during the holiday season: students must race to the library in the morning to grab the perfect spot. Many students stay in the library until the clock ticks 2:00AM, the time Guarini campus closes. Leaving the library is often the hardest thing: every student hopes that some brilliant idea will pop out at the last minute.
Now this brings us to every student’s worst trait: procrastination. There is a general trend among students to postpone writing a paper to the very last minute. Whenever a student receives an assignment, he or she brushes it off until time starts running out! As time goes by and professors begin asking how papers are going, an inner voice begins to warn students that it is time to start writing. Therefore, you promise yourself to devote the weekend to working on your paper.
But who knew that the weather would be too good to sit in the library and study, or that inspiration would not visit you the following weekend? You feel bad you are not productive, but you're still not panicking because the deadline is far away (or at least it seems so). Then you finally start writing, you get one page done, and you feel so proud about getting it done in advance that you put off writing more for some more time.
Weeks pass, and suddenly you are only a few days away from the deadline. And here comes the fun! You start asking your classmates whether they have already finished their papers and from there, there are two possible outcomes: if they haven’t yet started you will feel good about yourself because you are in a much better situation with your one page; but when they say that he or she is almost done with it you instantly start to freak out. You then spend days and nights writing that paper. From that moment on you couldn't care less about the weather outside and your absence of inspiration.
The only thing that you know is that you MUST finish this paper, no matter what happens. The fact that you rushed your writing makes you doubt the paper's quality, sometimes making you want to delete everything you got down on the page and start writing over again just days before the deadline hits. Rereading finished sections of the paper leaves you feeling stressed that they don’t make any sense, so you edit it infinite times. When you are finally satisfied with your paper you submit it and feel like a hero who just saved the world.
We students are funny creatures. Everyone knows that writing a paper at the last moment is extremely stressful and there are times you feel like you are about to have an emotional breakdown. Yet we still procrastinate. After such a painful paper submission we promise ourselves that this was the last time and that we will start working on our next assignment weeks in advance, but we then end up following the same scenario. So when you feel like you are procrastinating, my best advice is to sketch an outline, put on a pot of espresso, and remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
