Procrastination is a No-No

Hello class of 2025, It has been a journey. All the friendships, more than friendships, questionable more than friendships we’ve made. The stress, The crunch times, the failing classes in some cases. Has brought us all here, Graduation. While I never thought I’d make it here. I did, we did. 

When I first started High school I didn’t realize how far I would have come. When I first jumped into high school, I was an awkward pretween who didnt know what the heck he was doing. I didn’t have a clue on what to expect. I had some friends, I was on the football team, I thought I had High school on lockdown. I did not. 

In my first year alone I had failed a couple classes and had to go to summer school. My parents did not like this but they never gave up on me. They kept pushing me to get better at the school part of life. I was a serial procrastinator. Whether it was to clean my room or to do the dishes, I always put it off till the last minute. Then it would come back to bite me. When I failed those classes my first year of high school I thought it would change something in me. It didn’t. 

Going into sophomore year I thought I would change this trajectory. I went into the school year passing most of my classes. But things quickly went downhill from there. I quickly found myself in the same position I found myself the year before. Not passing, and procrastinating. While this trend has followed me through all walks of life i was determined to break the cycle of procrastination. And also this is the year that most resonates with me, in the fact that the nickname started. Cheese Ball. But even though this nickname has followed me throughout my high school career. I have grown to appreciate it. 

Going into my junior year I found myself in the hole once again, or in a ball, of cheese, as everyone said. I kept telling myself every day that I would change this trajectory. That I would stop procrastinating and just get my work done. This year was by far my worst year when it comes to school work. Or heck, school in general. A part of me wondered if the problem was me, or if I just didn’t understand the material given to me. But yet again I was back in summer school and felt even more embarrassed. I didn’t understand why I kept putting myself into these situations. Then came the biggest blow I experienced. Due to my procrastination I wasn’t able to play football this next year. I was going to miss my senior year of football. And whilst my parents and peers were disappointed in me, I knew I had to restore some faith in myself and them. 

Now I was going into the biggest year of high school. My. Senior. Year. This was my time to prove that I can be a good student and pass my classes. While watching football from the stands was a painful blow, I didn’t let it ruin me. I kept trudging forward. Made up my credits from previous years and was on track again. I kept this run up, but was still struggling in English a little. I kept my head up and passed all my classes the first semester. This was new to me, as I had never passed all my classes. I was very proud of myself in the fact that I had finally stopped procrastinating. And while the year still has a little longer left I am on track for the same thing, while I struggled a little in English I am confident I will pass this go around and finally crest the top of the one thing we’ve all been waiting for. GRADUATION. 

As I leave Oak hill I will always remember all my wonderful teachers and peers. I will always remember all the crap I got given for not being on track by my parents and peers. And I will for certain remember the one lesson I learned throughout my High school journey, Don’t procrastinate. Get off your phone and finish that English assignment. Don’t let it come back and bite you. And everything will all be okay. 

“ProcraStination” by Viktor Hertz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.