Although university is great and, yes first year is in some ways a breeze, there is still some work to be done. With that work comes deadlines. I find half the trouble with completing an assignment at university is getting it in on time. The physical process of getting up on a Monday morning and walking to campus before the 12 o’clock cut off point is at least 35% of the work.
Most of the time as I walk to campus, everything is splendid. I reach the traffic lights just as they turn green. I step out of my front door in that miraculous 10 minute period of dryness in between two hours of rain. A chorus of woodland animals serenades me as I walk. Just kidding about that last part – it’s always raining in Leeds.
Sometimes though, it just isn’t as smooth. There have been occasions where on my trip into university I encounter more problems than Dorothy did on the way to the Emerald City. The Day of the Deadline (hereby referred to as D-Day) was one such day.
11:20am – I left my flat, five minutes later than I had planned but there was a crisis of hair. Still, I was confident that I had enough time to get down to the library, print off my assignment and hand it in. From my nearest bus stop you could see approaching buses at the top of the hill. As I arrived at the bottom of the road my eyes hopefully scanned the horizon for the number 96. Two buses came and went before 96 arrived, the 84X (bloody useless) and one which said ‘Not In Service’ (probably more useful than the number 84X). I was starting to get slightly nervous at this point but no reason to start seriously worrying, I had 31 minutes left.
11: 36am – Arriving at the university gates I nimbly hopped off the bus preparing myself for a brisk walk to the library. By the side of the road a man with crutches was attempting to get into a taxi, clearly struggling with none of the D-dayless people around him offering any help. My conscience getting the better of me, I stopped to open the door for him praying that karma would repay me by making the clock in the history office five minutes slower than the one on my phone.
11:38am – After some inner turmoil I decided that I should upgrade from the planned brisk walk to a variation on a skip in the direction of the library.
11:43am – Thanks to the skipping I entered the library 17 minutes before the deadline. But there was no time to waste, I went straight to the computer room and pounced on a free monitor with all the agility of a jungle cat. Finally I managed to submit my essay to the printer – all I could do now was wait.
11:47am – My document was 2nd in the queue for the printer so I was still not that nervous although my brain was now replaying the theme tune to countdown in my head. The girl in front of me decided today was the day to print off what can only be described as her manuscript for a trilogy rivalling the length of the Harry Potter series. 89 pages later she still wasn’t done.
11:53am – Finally at the 104 page count her book was complete and my work was being printed!
11:54am – I ran through the library foyer and out of the barriers but then, catastrophically, the library alarm went off. A middle-aged women blocked my way to the door, herding myself and everyone else who had walked out in the last minute back into the library – someone had tried to take a book and she would not let this thief get away.
11:56am – The zealous librarian refused to let any of us out until all our bags had been searched. By this point I was starting to get panicky.
11:57am – I had not yet been searched but was desperate, so ducked around Mrs. I-don’t-care-how-they-look-these-shoes-are-comfortable, whilst declaring that I was now three minutes away from a deadline.
11:59am – Not so much climbing as leaping up the stairs to the history office (it’s 5th floor) I entered the room with 45 seconds to spare.
Such adventures to be had here in Leeds! It is of course simple to avoid a morning like I have just told, you are able to hand in assignments up to two weeks before. Next time, I’ll do that, to save myself all this hassle. Joking, I don’t start writing until Sunday lunchtime.
Image Sources:
2) http://gnoted.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/5_wikipedia-1-550×550.jpg
3) http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/book-thief-title.jpg
5) http://theaccidentalextremist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/chariots-of-fire_l.jpg
Eleanor Canham