Tidal waves of frustration were bombarding me; my eyes could not focus on the finely inked words of the exam pages. I felt as if my eyes were the only things combatting what would be tears. I could only comprehend the regret I felt for not studying the contents of my test.  

After two short weeks of intense procrastination, the day of the test had finally arrived, unfortunately.

 

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Two weeks prior, I had been assigned a detailed list of possible methods and strategies to study for the most important and rumored to be the most difficult physical and life science test of fourth grade.

No biggy, I thought, beforehand at least. I had more important affairs to attend and put my mind to. I felt profuse studying was insensible, unimportant, and quite the utter waste of time. I had aced all my past tests this quarter, and for the past few years in all honesty. Anticipating the easiest was a detrimental mistake, for I would soon be in a frustrating, exasperating, infuriating situation.

Even as fourteen days had fled by, I managed to avoid studying the contents of the impending test, although it was axiomatic that I should have at least done the bare minimum. Overconfident as I was, the feeling of regret did not slip past me as I neared the day of the exam.

It was Wednesday, Humpday, which indicated that the week was half over, and the clock had just ticked past Twelve O’clock, the end of the first half of the day. I felt, however, that three-fourths of the day lay in the one-and-a-half-hour time frame of testing that resides in the last period of school.

The day had seemed to inch by slower than usual. Anticipating the worst, even though I expected the best just two weeks ago, I left the school band room and readied myself for the upcoming exam that was just minutes away.

I rushed through the never-ending halls of the school, my mind moving just as swiftly as my feet were, and my hands were clammy. Recurring regret foreshadowed dreadful testing, testing that would occur very soon. How perfect!

 

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My headache stung so horribly it felt as though storms were ferociously thundering behind my forehead as I tried to move on to my next few exam questions. Tidal waves of frustration bombarded me, and my eyes could not focus on the finely inked words of the exam pages. I felt as though my eyes were the only things combatting what would be tears. I could only comprehend the regret I felt for not studying the contents of my test. How could I have possibly misjudged the difficulty of it by such an astronomical amount?

I had nobody to blame, as I was the only one fully at fault for neglecting the very present necessity to study, yet fourth-grade me still possessed a slight grudge for my teacher.

Two weeks of not preparing could have only resulted in one thing, a failed test. From the day I had taken the exam and on, I tried to use it to prevent procrastination.  One memory I have of using this memory was on a day when my friends and I had made a plan to go to Corner Ice Cream, an ice cream shop near my neighborhood. We had agreed to use bikes, and we would meet up at my friend’s house.

I had been looking at my phone, not paying attention to the time. The time of the meeting came, but I was distracted. However, the memory of the exam replayed itself, reminding me to go, as I was procrastinating and failing my friends. The previous memory had prevented me from letting my friends down (and missing out on an ice cream cone).

I have kept that memory close to me, as it taught me one of the most important things I could ever be taught in order to be successful in learning, and although it is human nature to procrastinate, nothing good will ever come of it.

Noticing and stopping procrastination before it happens has allowed me to accomplish much more than I’d ever thought possible, and I can guarantee that you, or anyone for that matter, can do the same.

 

 

 

 

-Kevin R.