Midterms bring usual headaches

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It’s time to pay the piper.

Yes, once again we — or at least I — have reached that week in the semester where suddenly every class is a test and assignments are due left and right.

Of course, I’m unprepared.

It’s funny. Every semester I tell myself I’ll be on top of things. I make grand plans and figure out how my new system will keep me ahead of the game, ready for everything.

Then the semester begins and it all goes out the window. I find myself scrambling, sacrificing one thing for another in a desperate bid to keep all the balls in the air and still come out of the whole thing with a decent grade-point average.

In my defense, the total breakdown of my system is often for reasons somewhat beyond me.

In this particular case, it was a cold.

Last week, I managed to catch a whopper of one, and before I knew it I’m suddenly a week behind in my stuff, and all my planning is for naught. The project I was going to finish a week ahead of time? Suddenly it’s being penciled in for last-minute completion.

Now I know blaming it on a cold is just a weak stab at trying to excuse myself for not doing what I should have been doing. Yes, I may have spent a lot more time lying in bed thinking germ-killing thoughts, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have had my computer or a book open in front of me studying at the same time.

Honestly, though, I’ve done a much better job this year than in the past. Although I am behind — there’s no denying that fact — I’m actually not as behind as usual. I still have a week to finish this project which I’m already half through. In past years, odds are I’d just be starting it at this point.

I’ve also been fairly diligent in preparing for exams so I won’t need to cram the night before to get through them — doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it, of course.

All that doesn’t change the fact that I’m far behind where I’d like to be at this point, which is where I always seem to find myself.

How can I do this to myself?

I’m not sure. I always mean to analyze myself, and figure out what the central flaw is in me that leads to this tri-semester mess, but I find I’m too busy trying to catch up and I don’t really have the time for introspection.

Still, while I have the time — and the inches to fill — in this column, I probably should try to gain some insight into exactly what is a central character flaw.

I can’t blame the problem of being overworked. Yes, I have to balance my job here at The State News with my full slate of classes, but that’s not exactly a unique situation. I actually know of at least two people who are juggling three jobs and a full class load, so my schedule is actually really nothing.

Perhaps I actually like scrambling with a deadline hanging over my head. One of the major things a person learns working at a newspaper is the power of a deadline. Some of my best work has been accomplished at the last minute.

I’m sure many in the same boat would love to blame the professors for all scheduling exams and projects for exactly the same time of the year. But that’s not their problem — it’s the nature of the academic schedule.

College is a learning environment. One of the things students should take away from school is the ability to work under extreme pressure. Sure, high school had the same high-pressure situations, but the structured nature of it doesn’t as accurately reflect what a person will find in the working world as the more open college atmosphere, in my opinion.

So I take from all this the knowledge that I may be doing myself some good. I’m teaching myself how to deal with pressure, and getting ready to deal with whatever my future employers may throw at me.

Of course, all of this might just be another excuse. If this column has taught you nothing else, it’s that I’m full of them.

And I’m sure all of this has nothing to do with the fact that I’m a procrastinator.

James Harrison is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at harri310@msu.edu.

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