“I work best under pressure” was something I used to tell myself all the time, especially in high school. I found myself completing my best work as the deadline approached nearer. I once explained to my teacher my method and although a lot of students nodded in agreement as we formed a little small circle, I noticed that my teacher, who was listening quietly to the conversation frown a bit and warn us not to rely on that method so often. I brushed off her warning and continued turning in my “day before but still perfect,” work. It worked out great, that is, until I hit college *queue the horror music*
One thing I definitely knew before setting foot on campus was that it was not going to be anything like high school. Far from it actually, I knew there’d be more work involved and less personal time. My teacher’s warning still rang in my head but I ignored it and shoved it to the back of my mind. When the assignments came in, I decided to take it easy, and use my high school method, which worked out for the first week or two, until organizations started coming into the picture, that’s when it started to go downhill.http://gph.is/2jvtm7M I joined various clubs and started forging a path in my college career, while the events on my schedule piled high, my assignments were up piling even higher. On the week that a majority of my assignments were due, I was in for quite a surprise. Normally I don’t read the entirety of an assignment until I sit down and work on it, I only read the title, so when I discovered I had essays, presentations and even more essays, I knew my teacher was secretly taunting me back in my hometown. It wasn’t possible, even for a procrastination superhuman such as myself. The week of no sleep became the worst week of my freshman year, one I will never forget and comes back to haunt me whenever I say to myself “I’ll do it later.” My under eye bags had bags of their own and I admittedly took home a few L’s.
My stubborn mind finally relented and admitted that those high school warnings were correct and even though I worked well under pressure, it’s best to not let assignments get too close to the due date before you realize that maybe you should’ve started it earlier! In the end, It wasn’t a total loss as I did walk away with a valuable lesson learned.
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