I’ve got this history paper due on Thursday. It’s the big research paper for the semester, and it counts for a large portion of the final grade. Because the deadline is coming up, it’s really pressing on my mind right now.
Earlier in the semester, we had smaller assignments related to the paper–for example, we had to get our preliminary bibliography together, write a preliminary outline, etc. I…pretty much did the bare minimum on all of those. Yeah. Didn’t do so well.
So for this final paper, I decided to finish it early, so that I could bring it in to the FHSS Writing Lab where I work and have one of my coworkers help me with it. That means, of course, that I can’t wait until the night it’s due to write it (which is pretty much how I’ve done every other paper of my college career). I need to be responsible and get it done early.
I woke up today thinking “crap, I’ve got a paper I’ve got to write.” I decided that I’d sit down and write the whole d*** thing today after dinner. I had the urge to play Genghis Khan II, but I resisted it and went to the library. I worked really hard–I only spent about 25% to 35% of my time there chatting with friends and engaging in avoidance activity. It was tough.
I started out hating the paper, but once I had a thesis and an outline, I started to really get into it. History is kind of like storytelling, and I like storytelling. When I figured out how to insert footnotes on Word 2007, I started to get the urge to just insert a ton of them everywhere because it’s so cool. Gamila was chatting with me, and when she mentioned something from her Latin class, I said “hey, you could be the Franks and I could be the Saracens–after all, Saladin’s given name was Yusuf!” (my paper is on the crusades–can you tell?)
The coolest thing was that when I came back to the apartment, I just felt so FREEEEEEEE! I mean, yeah, the paper is still due on Thursday, and yeah, there is still a ton of work that I have to do for it, but it’s half done, and the rest is easy! I’m even starting to really enjoy this subject. I can’t wait to tell the story of Reynauld de Chatillon and all the things he did to piss off Saladin! That guy was so smug, sitting in his castle in Kerak. He even defied the orders of the king in Jerusalem to break the truce between the Franks and the Saracens! If it wasn’t for that, perhaps the Battle of Hattin would never have happened–perhaps the Kingdom of Jerusalem would have survived. Who knows?
So, yeah, I was responsible tonight…and dangit! It’s 1:45 am and I haven’t written at all for today! I would crank out a couple hundred words before going to bed, but I’ve got to get up at freaking 7am…holy cow, it’s going to kill me.
But yeah, I’m just really happy to have that burden at least partially lifted from me. Being responsible can have its perks–I should try it more often.
