Paper writing is just part of the college experience. Freshman year, you start off with smaller papers, maybe five-to-six pages long, and by the time you're a junior or a senior, you're writing over 20-page papers like it's no big deal. While paper writing is a forte of mine, there are several different stages that I think every college student goes to when faced with a daunting essay assignment.
1. Acknowledgement
You get handed the assignment description, you read the essay requirements, you know you have to write this essay. You keep the essay in the back of your head, but for right now you have other assignments that are due so you promise yourself you'll work on it later after everything else is done.
2. Ignorance
It's been a few weeks. You know you really should write that essay that you were assigned several weeks ago but you're just going to ignore it anyways. Ignorance is bliss, right?
3. Procrastination
Alright, so by this point you really need to write this paper. You sit down to write, open your laptop, start your research. But from the other side of the room, you hear something. It's Netflix, quietly calling your name, calling you away from your paper. Next thing you know, Netflix is open, you have five different conversations going on your phone, and your essay is officially put away. Procrastination at its finest.
4. Denial
Alright, so this whole paper thing isn't going so well. At this point, you're so past trying to write this paper that you just start pretending that it doesn't exist. Do you have a huge essay due in a few days? Nope. Should you be writing it and not watching the next episode on Netflix? Nope, definitely not. Out of sight, out of mind.
5. Acceptance
This is the part where you realize you really do need to write your paper and you can't get around it. You pull out the assignment description, crack open your laptop, chug the rest of your coffee, and settle in for what's going to be a long night of writing.
6. Determination
You're a good portion of the way through your paper and you're feeling pretty good. You've got all your research laid out, and your fingers are flying over the keyboard. You're going to get this essay done no problem.
7. Stress
You've written everything you had research for. You're still three pages away from the minimum page requirement. The deadline for this essay is quickly approaching. You're only a little bit stressed out.
8. Panic
Just kidding, you're a lot stressed out Time is moving so quickly and you don't have anything else to write about and you have no idea what you're going to do and your paper is horrible and you're going to fail and drop out of college and your life is going to be miserable. Panic.
9. Focus
At this point you're writing to save your life. You don't even know what your fingers are typing but you keep going anyways. As long as you can get to the page requirement everything will be fine and you'll be able to get through it all.
10. Relief
It's finally done. You've hit the submit button, the paper is turned in, you can finally cry tears of happiness and nap for a few hours without a worry in the world. Of course, that is until your next paper is assigned and you have to repeat this process all over again.
