Bugger
Let’s examine this scenario:
It’s almost midnight. You have an English essay due for university on Friday 04/04/08 at 4pm, and your teacher is too old to like technology, insisting that a hard-copy must be handed in; no e-mail attachments can be recognised as submissions. You sit at your computer with a bit of a hunched back, having just consumed half a carton of chocolate milk, thinking that, hey, since warm milk has enzymes which make you sleepy, cold flavoured milk must have some kind of a polar opposite reaction.
Ten minutes to midnight. Your essay has to be 1500 words long, on the topic of “Text and Context”, answering a question that isn’t written correctly grammar-wise and would make you LOL at your teacher if only you weren’t fifteen hours away from having to hand it in and also had other shit to do on top of it. Another sip of milk. No, tea, tea is better. You get some tea. Come back. The word count, which you expected to magically increase by 1000, just stares at you without any fear, and you want to stab it. But that’s alright… you have fifteen hours, right? Right.
Five minutes to midnight. You can tell this is going to be a nasty all-nighter, and knowing your pattern of going to bed at ridiculous hours and waking up in the late afternoon, suddenly the thought of any sleep at all scares the shit out of you, in case you sleep past the deadline and are penalised 10% of the mark for every day that it’s late (including weekend days). No. You MUST stay up, damnit!
Two minutes to midnight. You open the readings booklet, and start combing through Brokeback Mountain whilst doing research on the author to beef up your essay and make it sound like you’ve accumulated a great deal of knowledge in the past six weeks, when really it’s just been a load of bullshit. The word count has not increased. You eye it again skeptically, then go back to the booklet. It’s going to be a long night.
Midnight. You suddenly think about the sunrise; how fun it would be to watch the sky slowly grow lighter, the one moment of the day when you can take a walk outside in a coat due to the cold and think back on your life. When you can reminisce more than most teenagers ought to, with a cup of coffee in your hand slowly waking you up while you still dilly-dally in your memories and watch that bleak sunlight break across the horizon. And…
Ten past twelve. Crap. Your essay is still sitting there. You sigh and maximise the Microsoft Word window, staring at the word count. You’re not even 5% of the way to the finish line yet! Disgraceful, considering how much of an English nerd you were in your final year of high school, and taking into account that the topic is essentially the same fucking thing, only more dolled up to look more intimidating. Placing your fingers on the keys, you finally start to type…
One o’clock in the morning. You lean back from the desk, circulate the room in a giddy manner, stretch your arms and legs, feeling proud of yourself. Considering how dead your brain has been over the past few days, and how annoying that fucking pain in your foot is, you’ve come a fair way. Your chair is a wheelie chair, so it’s extra-fun. From a distance, it looks like you’ve written more than 400 words! It must be. Then, you truck on over to the computer again, and bring up the word count dialog. It reads: 237.
You just stare at it, feeling slightly mortified, slightly sleepy, and mostly grouchy. All the high from your wheelie run has completely gone poof. And all you can think, is: Bugger.
[#] Amber, on April 4, 2008:
That is the most annoying thing ever — my business studies reports are sometimes 10,000 words long. So I have to make a mental note near myself when trying to make a deadline “I have one hour to write a thousand words”. You write a long paragraph and it’s only 300 words at the most? It’s enough to drive you INSANE.
I hope you get it in on time though! :)
[#] Belinda, on April 4, 2008:
From personal experience, I can say that such a scenario has happened to me many, MANY times in my Uni career.
Also from personal experience, I find myself REALLY productive around 5am, when the deadline is truly looming and you’re just type, type, typing something, ANYTHING. D:
Best of luck with your assignment!
[#] Nellie, on April 4, 2008:
I have the opposite problem. I go over my word count and find it really hard to cut things down because it messes up the entire flow of the damn thing and what I’d probably get an A for if word count didn’t matter, gets a B.
Fjdsjfsd.
But then again, I’d much rather have my problem than yours. At least I have something to hand in at the end.
I hope you manage to get it completed today, especially if it’s worth something.
[#] Kaylee, on April 4, 2008:
I just wonder how, despite going through all that, something manages to get handed in at the end!
Yes, I’ve been there, done that many times before.
[#] Skye, on April 4, 2008:
So you procrastinate a little more by blogging. hehe.
See, this would be me the day before. I refuse to mess up my sleep by pulling all nighters. Would rather turn it in late *nods*
Did you get it done in time?
[#] Chien Yee, on April 5, 2008:
I do that a lot xD Except, that its not supposed to be typed out but written. I wish technology is an option, but it never is :(
[#] Amanda, on April 6, 2008:
Oh jesus, i’m two years away from uni and I don’t think i’ve ever reached the 1000-word count yet :|
I hope you managed to get it done before you blogged this…
[#] Rilla, on April 6, 2008:
Yah. Hope you finished it before blogging about it! I’ve had that experience but not (yet) the scene in your penultimate paragraph. Hope it doesn’t happen to me throughout uni. xP