Disengage

I spent several hours yesterday acting more surly than usual, thanks to the last-minute assignment of silly busywork in the middle of an already stressful week of classes. I need to write a 2-5 page paper on Brewster McCloud by Thursday at 2 PM, read 50 pages for my television class by tonight, and now I also have to prepare a draft of my resume for peer-editing by Thursday at 12:30 PM. Sure, I’m due to graduate in a month and a half, so I really should have a resume, but I lost it in the great hard drive crash of 2002 and never got around to putting together another one.

When I got back from spring break, I decided not to stress about anything more than a week in advance, with two exceptions: the two major papers that are due in mid- to late-April. This way, each week would seem bearable and I could use weekends to catch up and prepare for the week in advance. After wallowing in my newly reconstituted stress for a while yesterday, I decided to just completely disengage from school for the remainder of the year. A significant portion of my grade in each class has already been determined, and there’s really very little I can do to affect my GPA one way or another at this point anyway.

I’ve always been of the opinion—and tried to live in accordance with the idea—that learning in school is infinitely more important than grades. The grading aspect has always (well, almost always) motivated me in classes that I don’t particularly enjoy, but I won’t live that way anymore. This, dear readers, is senioritis on a grand scale. It’s time to proclaim to the world my academic motto for the next six weeks: Embrace Mediocrity.

March 24, 2004 - 10:53 AM

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