Amani, ‘12

Hello again, Prospectives!  Hope all is well in the world of college preparation and decision-making. 

Things here are getting pretty busy.  For starters, I pulled my first all-nighter the night before last.  I know, I know:  I’m supposed to be setting the example for you guys of exemplary collegiate behavior.  However, sometimes you do what you must to survive—survival of the fittest, right?  Anyway, I had planned to work on my 10-12 Black Vernacular research paper all last week, completing two pages everyday starting on Monday.  That way, I would be finished with my paper between Friday and Saturday, and I would be able to take a break from it before returning to critically read and revise it and turn it in today, Tuesday.  My plan started off great until Wednesday when I had a doctor’s appointment, an induction ceremony for Phi Eta Sigma, a freshmen honor’s society (go me! ), and then a close-out Oliver Hill Scholars meeting, which was a dinner to honor the graduating seniors within the program.  All this was on top of my 3 classes, one of which is 2 hours by itself.  So yeah, I was quite busy on Wednesday and only got about 3/4 of a page written.  The next day, I just wasn’t in a productive mood, which happens sometimes as a student, so I only got one page written.  And Friday, after my 3 classes, I went to William and Mary to support my sister’s friend’s fashion show and stayed for the party, of course .  From there, I went home.  When I finally woke up on Saturday, I had a little dilemma—this was the day I was supposed to be finished my paper, yet I only had completed 5 ¾ of my research paper.  So what did I do?  I sat in front of my computer for hours trying to come up with in-depth analysis of my topic, not getting very far.  At the end of the day I only had a little over 7 pages.  Well, the next day was Easter Sunday, so spending time with loved ones was a must before returning to campus.

And that, my friends, is how I was driven to the decision to finish my paper at all costs on Sunday night, the cost, of course, being a restful night of sleep.  I went to 8:15 @ Boatwright (our on-campus coffee shop) and bought a medium white chocolate mocha with caramel because I would not be able to stay up on my own.  I worked and worked and worked away from 10 p.m. to 5:57 a.m., which is when I reached the last line of my tenth page and coincidentally completed my final thought.  Later, when I woke up, I revised my paper and ended up with 10 ½ pages in all, and a pretty decent work at that.  I washed my hands of it when I turned it in at 12:45 pm today in class, and I was quite relieved.

Disclaimer:  I do not condone putting schoolwork on the backburner or pulling all-nighters.

However, I do think that I pulled it all together in the end, and I still got to enjoy my weekend .  Will I do it again?  Absolutely not.  I will try by any means necessary to stick to my schedule when it comes to completing work.  I’ve learned, albeit the hard way, that procrastination hurts you in the end, one way or another.  Take it from me, Prospectives:  prioritization and time management are extremely important to your success in college, so do all you can to work towards perfecting those areas of your life because you don’t want to go the hard way if you can take it from somebody who has already been there, done that, and has the bags under her eyes to prove it, lol.

And now that you’ve spent all this time reading about what you shouldn’t do, enjoy these pictures from the LiVE Fashion Show for HIV/AIDS awareness at William and Mary:

That’s all for now, Prospectives.  Until next time…

Amani