Procrastination

Hello, my name is BBoone, and I am here to talk about a valuable lesson that I am still trying to learn: procrastination. So in my high school, I have struggled with procrastination, and I can’t understand why. Every year of high school has been a repeat of the same thing over and over again. I start good, then I start to struggle, and then I come back and catch up, and then I fall behind again and go to summer school. That has been the same cycle for the last 3 years, and hopefully, this year will be different, but I want to tell a story about a time I procrastinated when there was no room for it. 

It started off my sophomore year of high school, and I was in English class, which was the start of the second semester. I barely passed the previous semester of English, but this semester I was stressed out due to previous events. I did not want to do any work, so I just said screw it. I did almost no work for that entire semester besides maybe 1 or 2 assignments, and on top of that, just about 0 minutes of Membean that semester. I was not proud of it at all. By the end of the year, I did not know what to do with myself. They said I was too far behind to go to summer school, and that meant I had to retake the class, which I was not excited for. I was so scared to take a class with people 2 grades below me, and it’s not as much as scared as I was embarrassed; I did not want to do it. So I thought about dropping out, but I knew I couldn’t do that because there would be so many people I would disappoint, and I knew I couldn’t do that to them, so I pushed through until one day I was called into the guidance office, and they gave me an option. I could do adult ed, and if I focused, I could get all of English 2 done in 1 semester, and I was so excited. I thought to myself, “yes, finally a way out of that class,” but little did I know this was just the start of a long journey of not doing any work and a whole lot of procrastination. 

So the plan was I was going to go to adult ed 2 times a week for an hour each day and grind out a whole bunch of packets, then a book report, and be completely done by December. I was so excited to be done that I went in that first day and grinded out a ton of work, and then I did that for the next couple of sessions until the teacher told me that I needed to slow down and not go too fast, or else I would not be able to finish because I wouldn’t have enough hours. So to my brain, that meant I could do a whole bunch of procrastinating. So that’s what I did; I started skipping, and when I did go, I wouldn’t do any work, and this piled up until my teacher told me months later that I needed to focus and get this work done. I was like, I’m getting it done, even though I knew I wasn’t, and I was lying straight through my teeth. 

So I kept procrastinating until I was finally like, I just want to get out of here, so I focused, and I got all the packets done. It wasn’t the amount of time I wanted, but I got it done, and all I had left was to read a book and do a book report, and I was done, and I could be out of there. So I read the book and was ready to do the book report, and I was able to do it at home, but I would always tell myself I’d just do it when I get home, but I never did, and I was so disappointed in myself that after a while, I didn’t even want to start it because I was too scared to ask for help or to start that I just lied straight out of my teeth, saying that I almost had it done, even though I knew it was a lie, and I hated lying to them. So one day, after talking with my dad, I emailed my teachers telling them that I was lying and that I didn’t start it, and they assured me that it was doable and there was no reason to be scared or worked up over it and that I could get it done, which I knew I could. It’s just getting started that is the problem. So I went in the following week and did it in 2 sessions; it only took a measly 2 hours to get it done, and I felt so happy after completing it. It was like 1000 pounds were lifted off my shoulders that day, and after almost 4 years, I just started to realize maybe I should just get it done. 

So, to whoever is stressing out about work or that they can’t get it done, just know that you can get it done, and this is coming from a person who’s been procrastinating since 7th grade: “JUST GET IT DONE.”

“stress” by disenoterapia is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.