You know that feeling when you have so much to do that you just do none of it? Yeah, me too. This week has been one of those weeks.

In the span of four days I have five papers, two exams and a presentation all due. It has come down to a battle of what I would like to procrastinate more.

I inherently put things off until the last second, so this week I have started doing productive things to further put off things that could be seen as more productive.

I have cleaned my room, reorganized my desk and stayed at work for hours longer than I had to because that was better than doing homework and something I could see as “productive.”

Now, as I sit here writing this, I am overwhelmed by the amount of things that I have to do and how few days I have to do them.

Unfortunately, for me anyways, this is a better situation than I have been in in past semesters.

I am not as behind as I could be; and that in itself is progress. Over the last year, I have seen so many changes in my life that can be considered progress. I stopped talking about things that I was going to do and started to actually do them.

In the next few months, I will travel to Nicaragua, see a presidential inauguration, begin my first internship, do a study abroad program in Paris and spend my first summer away from home. These were once things that I put off, as if it were homework.

Then, one day I decided that I needed to take advantage of the opportunities that have been given to me, that I should be pursuing all of these experiences and stop being so afraid of failure. I came about some of these opportunities in non-traditional ways and I am grateful for that.

As time goes on, I have realized that putting things off only harms myself and that I need to be proactive if I want to pursue all that I am able to.