I thrive on tight deadlines. Well, I’m not sure you understand just how tight I really mean. I can’t start a paper more than 12 hours before it’s due -- not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t have a fire lit under my butt to actually do it. Sure, I can start some research, maybe even make an outline a couple of days before. But I can’t make myself actually write the paper until the very last minute.

Hi, my name is Amanda, and I am a procrastinator.

I’ve heard a thousand times that my procrastination is no good. That it’ll get me into trouble. It’ll be the reason I fail out of school and become a hobo. I know all of this! I’ve been hearing it my entire life. I can recite the speech the second I see the look in someone’s eyes (and I’ve recited the speech to others -- please, save yourself!) when I let them in on my dirty little secret.

It’s really not much of a secret though. I don’t try to hide the fact that I’m completely hopeless at starting anything at a reasonable time. I’m actually kind of proud that I can pick a topic, research it, and then write a 10-page paper on the subject starting less than eight hours before it’s due (and somehow hand in B+ work?) and still have time for a nap before the class. Who else can say that they’ve successfully attempted that?

Procrastination has its upsides. It proves that I can work well under pressure, and that I can easily maneuver in a time crunch. During finals, my procrastination leads me to clean instead of study -- and I guarantee that you’ll never see my room neater than when I have to study for a huge test. The little tips and tricks I’ve learned from procrastinating allow me to do my work faster than my peers, allowing me extra time when it’s done to relax…well, it would if I started it at the same time as everyone else.

The downsides to procrastinating are equally ridiculous. Remember that paper I started way too close to the due date? Imagine if I started earlier, and spent more time developing my ideas. That could have easily been an A paper if I had only gotten over my urge to do anything but what I needed to do. The stress I feel when I start a project right before it’s due will be the death of me one day -- the anxiety is unreal! From personal experience, I can honestly say that procrastinating until the last second fills me with just as much fear as being thrown 15 feet in the air and expecting someone to catch me does.

In keeping with the theme of this article, I’ve started to write these thoughts minutes before this article is due, and I apologize to everyone reading this. I’d say I’ll edit it as soon as I can, but I think we all know that I’ll put it off until the very last possible second.