I am not ashamed to say that I am a procrastinator.
It’s not that I don’t hate that I do it, I do. But it’s just a way of life that I’ve come to accept at this point. Much to my dismay, I’ve found it to be more challenging to procrastinate this year especially because my classes seem to be more demanding. More often than not I stay up abnormally late – MacBook AND Chromebook open, music playing, textbook open, papers scattered across my desk- sounds like I’m being productive, right? But do not be fooled, that is not me.
What am I actually doing? Staring off into space. The assignment is due before class the next day and I had all week to do it. It’s 12:30 AM and I’m nowhere near done. So what do I do after I finish staring at nothing? Stress over the assignment, stare at it blankly, tap my phone screen to look at the time, and suddenly I find myself watching a TikTok of a dancing frog. Despite all that, I usually get my work done and turned it in on time.
Although I think that some people might disagree, I find procrastination to be an art and a talent. The way people can take what some would do in two days and shrink it all down into 4 hours of quality work (less or more, it depends,) is so fascinating to me. I would consider it to be the one and only skill that I am decent at even though I always end up sacrificing my sleep.
The only downside I absolutely despise is that I never get enough rest because I stay up completing homework. Averaging around your regular 3-4 hours, I’m always pleasantly surprised that my brain can keep me sane when going to school the next day. However, getting 3-4 hours is no longer enough to keep me awake during some courses that are more or less lecture-based.
“OMG Jessica, how have you been keeping yourself awake?” you ask.
What a wonderful question that is. Allow me to let you in on a little secret.
I’m sure anyone could guess it by now, but for those who don’t know, my secret is that I consume copious amounts of caffeine in the form of energy drinks.
If Red Bull has millions of consumers, I am obviously without a doubt one of them. If they have 10, I am still one of them. If they have one, it is me. If they have 0 consumers, then we can all presume that I have died tragically. I am a pretty big fan if you couldn’t already tell.
My junior year consisted of only two a week just because I didn’t want to overload on caffeine, but senior year is seriously a whole different breed. This year, the only consistent thing seems to be that I’ve been tired no matter how much I slept or how many energy drinks I consumed. Therefore, my solution was that whenever I found myself to be tired in the morning before school, I would grab a can of Red Bull from the fridge. Unfortunately, it’s been almost every day now that I carry around a can of it in the side pocket of my backpack in the mornings, with the occasional exception of late arrival Wednesdays. I’ve had them so often that Mrs. Brucker’s gotten used to seeing me with one and only mentions it when I don’t walk into her class with a can in hand.
My friends seem to always be telling me that I’m going to get a heart attack or have to get a mechanical heart pump or go into heart failure before the age of 30 if I keep going down this path, but I think they’re just being dramatic and that I’m going to be just fine and thriving.
Either way, I don’t believe that drinking them has helped me stay awake any more than my pure sheer will, but I enjoy drinking them just for fun and for the possibility that maybe there will be a random occasion where the caffeine actually ends up working.
Overall, my senior year so far has been extremely exhausting and quite stressful, as I’m sure it’s been for most of us. It’s also been pretty caffeinated and wild, but I’ve kind of grown to enjoy the little things that happen every day, even if the majority of my school day is pretty lame.