Popagandhi / 669 posts / 5,955 comments / feed / comments feed / flickr feed

Procrastinators: Tomorrow’s Leaders

Qualities I embody to the fullest — it’s the last day of the school term. Within the next twelve hours, I need to deliver (from scratch, mind): a 4000 word essay about health care reforms, study 4 months’ of work in ‘environmental change, healthcare and aging”, wrap up an external writing assignment, move all my crap out of my hostel, pack one month’s luggage into a little day pack, spend time with my family and then catch a plane. (That’s a conservative estimate: an un-conservative version would include getting my prep and research for the Thailand story in order, and sorting out ahem, editorial relations and money matters… but hey most photojournalists I know are procrastinators too.) At this point, it’s rather difficult to believe I will be sitting at my current favourite place to detox, slightly under 48 hours from now. That feeling of watching the word count edge slowly towards a magic number… is so taxing on the brain that choosing to spend half an hour rearranging and ‘making your citations neater’ becomes an immensely enjoyable task in comparison.

And in my little corner of my swanky city campus’s library with glass windows, facing the beautiful National Museum and a little lawn… all I want to do is sit in the garden with my cat, but she has similar woes to worry about (potentially worse than my fate: business processes). Perhaps when I finally finish this damn essay, perhaps at around 6 am, I’ll get to start studying for my 9 am exam. Student life. I wonder if I’ll miss it.

When all that’s standing between you and an awesome 4 months of summer hols where wonderful things will happen for your career and family — some opportunities, and a brother’s wedding — is a 4000 word essay and yet another all-nighter on something you stopped giving a damn about the moment you entered this horrid institution — displeasure is something of an understatement.

P.S. Skim is a lifesaver when you’re referring to 10 different PDF files to write every damned line of your 25% weighted term essay.

4 Comments

  1. Anand — 13 April, 2007 #

    Ah, so it was you I saw in the foodcourt at dinner time yesterday when I was passing thru SMU (for some strange reason, I wasn’t sure :0)

    Nice title for this post – & so often true. Hang in there ya – like all the unpleasant things we have to do at times, this one WILL eventually finish & then your future awaits …...

    Best wishes for your (long) holiday & your blossoming writing career (should have perhaps told that to you in person earlier, but oh well .. :)

  2. Imperfectly Me — 13 April, 2007 #

    Chin up, Pop. :)
    You’ll do well.
    Cheers!

  3. jiahui — 13 April, 2007 #

    referencing is such a pain. try writing a 50% weightage paper :D. hope the exam is going well!

  4. Harrison — 16 April, 2007 #

    That’s a Threadless Type Tee slogan!

    =)

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