I just recently finished an online class and realized that I am not as disciplined as I thought. I started off the summer thinking an online class would be a breeze. I could jam pack all of the lectures into one sitting and have the rest of the week to work on assignments and complete exams. In fact, it was the complete opposite. My attention span lasted as long as a goldfish. Without the structure of a physical classroom, I found it pretty difficult to maintain focus.

It is so easy to want to open Netflix in another tab because there is literally no one sitting behind you to judge and no person lecturing in front of you. You are given a week's worth of lectures all at once and it is easy to put it off. I never thought of myself as a procrastinator, but it actually posed somewhat of a problem. The last couple weeks of class, it was hard for me to log in and feel motivated.

And then there came the final. The actual exam was fine, but it was more stressful than any test I have taken. I was going away for the weekend, so I emailed my professor three weeks in advance asking if the final could be moved one day so as to not interfere with my travel. She obliged very kindly (shout out to you, professor!) However, the morning of the test, tests are released at 12:30 a.m., Blackboard stopped working. I could be seen frantically calling every help desk only to find out that the entire system was down.

I had my finger on the refresh button until 2 a.m. and then it worked…but the test wasn't up yet. I emailed my professor, a complete shot in the dark, I know, and then set my alarm for 3:45 a.m. in case she did respond and put the test up. By some miracle, once my alarm went off, I shot up and found that she had posted the test. I ran to my laptop and completed the two-hour test. Once finished, I had just enough time to get ready to leave for my trip.

I made it, but it was so frustratingly exhausting that it made me rethink that maybe an online class is not the best option for me. Just something to consider.