Conor

I Put Too Much Food On My Plate and Now I Can’t Finish My Dinner

 Posted by on Wed, 10/19 at 12:10pm  reflection, remedy  1 Response »
Oct 192016
 

Do you ever sign up for something and think I immediately regret this decision? Have you every done that to yourself constantly throughout a semester-long period?

I have signed myself up for so many things and scheduled them all so close together that I have no room to breath at all. This week alone I have all my conferences (which obviously involves grading all the essay twos that I put off until now), I have my academic literacy autobiography due on Friday, I have a conference that I have to present at in Gainesville at the end of the week (of course I have yet to write my paper for that), and on top of all this I have to read Derrida’s Of Grammatology at some point.

If you have found yourself in a similar situation and are looking for a quick and easy fix then I have the solution for you: love yourself.

Out of that entire list of issues, there is not one problem that I did not create. And the solution to these is much simpler than not applying to graduate school in the first place. I could have easily graded the essay twos ages ago, which would make my conferences so easy and probably even a little fun. I’ve known about this literacy journal for some time, and it is not a long and arduous assignment. I should have written my conference paper about a month ago. I suppose Derrida is just going to be Derrida, and that is unavoidable, but without the other issues it would probably be less stress.

Now that I lived through this horrible situation will I learn from my mistakes and grow as a person? No, probably not. Every procrastinator lives through this endless cycle of putting everything off but somehow pulling out of situation perfectly fine and thinking “I would rather deal with that paper later and have 30 more minutes to watch my stories now!” So this situation is inevitably going to reoccur, and when it does I will probably complain and blame the world for the problems I created once more, but the solution still remains the same: if you’re thinking of procrastinating, just don’t.

Boys, Academia, and Balance… but Mainly Boys.

 Posted by on Thu, 9/8 at 6:21pm  reflection  No Responses »
Sep 082016
 

I am very much the type of person that if I can do something other than what I am suppose to be doing I will do it. This blog post is an example within itself; I have promised my kids I would have the notes on their rough drafts by tomorrow and I have plenty of reading for 6700 tomorrow, yet here I am.

That being said, you can not necessarily pick when something is going to occur in your life. I’m slowly becoming involved with this guy who is somewhat perfect. He is handsome, has money, and we get a long well so he meets all the criteria on my wheel of vanity. He likes to party way too much, but so do I so its not an issue I can really hold against him. And strangely enough he is not turned off by my ability to make any situation awkward.

At this point you are probably thinking: He is making an academic blog post to gush about his new relationship, and you are partially correct. But my real grievance with the situation is the imbalance that I am currently facing. It is easy to say that work and academics come first but in practice in often becomes all-consuming. I want to be able to explore all aspects of my life without feeling guilty that I am neglecting others. My new romantic involvement seems superfluous to probably the entire audience this post will reach, but it is important to me. I want to be the well-rounded person who is able to keep up academically, teach two classes, hold a part-time job on the weekends, and maintain a healthy social life but I am starting to realize that not everyone can be Rory Gilmore.

There is not necessarily a solution to this problem besides make more time, sleep less, or do not date boys outside of the English department but I am fully taking advantage of the colloquial nature of this blog to make my first post an airing of grievances I have about my personal schedule, regardless of the fact that it is only week three of the semester. And I have a feeling that, much unlike the popular support campaign, it does not get better.