Everyone knows that being assigned a paper is definitely going to be a huge hassle, mostly because the construction of that paper tends to follow a similar pattern of struggles every time. Without further ado, here are these stages:

1. Being assigned the paper.

The question that you have to answer seems kind of cool at this point, and when you are given that prompt you can see that you definitely have a few different ways that you can go with it. But you know what is yet to come, and the stress starts to sink in that you are going to have a rough couple of weeks as you are trying to get this thing finished.

2. Wholeheartedly procrastinating because you overestimate how much time you have to write the paper.

It’s due in three weeks, so that means I don’t have to look at it for three weeks, right? Wrong. Very Wrong. And you know it too. But somehow telling yourself this lie that you have “plenty of time” makes the assignment seem a little more bearable.

3. Panic because you realize how much you actually screwed yourself over by procrastinating

You realize that you now have three days to research, outline, write, and perfect a 10 page paper. Awesome. Great to know I still have not learned anything in my 19 (or more) years on this planet.

4. Starting to research

This is the moment of truth, where you either find way too much information on what you want to write about or nothing at all. Regardless, this stage usually consists with wandering around the library for at least a couple of hours. Who actually knows how to navigate the stacks?

5. Finding out your research proves the exact opposite of what you wanted to prove

Of course, because why would you be able to find anything that proves your point? Because it takes a lot less time to change your thesis than to start the research process over again, you decide to change your thesis to something you don’t entirely agree with, because you know you are never going to finish the assignment if you don’t.

6. Sitting down to start writing the paper

“Literally, where do I even start?” is usually the first thing that comes to mind. You are usually freaking out at this point due to the fact that the researching stage took about twice as much time as you expected it to. Now that you are completely overloaded with information, coming up with that first sentence is always a killer.

7. Break Number 1

Congratulations! You have successfully completed your first page! That obviously means you should reward yourself with at least an hour of break time right?

8. The first surge of writer's block

After your break, you start writing again, and before you know it, you are completely out of ideas. Which is very convenient, as you still have 8.5 pages to go before you are done.

9. Break Number 2

As a way to deal with stage 8, you decide to step away from the paper and regain your thoughts. This break usually consists of finding some form of caffeine, whether it be in the form of coffee or an energy drink, with hopes that this will keep you awake long enough to figure out what you are going to write about.

10. Epiphany Number 1

After that third cup of coffee and an hour on social media, it all hits you at once, and you feel like a genius. See, writing papers last minute isn’t that bad, right?!

11. Realizing your epiphany is completely incorrect

Yeah, you were wrong before, writing papers last minute is always that bad. As you try and piece together your surge of ideas from the first epiphany, you realize that the ideas are still way too abstract for you to actually put into words, and what you are writing is basically the equivalent of word vomit.

12. Break Number 3

At this point, you are about ready to give up. How badly will not turning in a paper, or at the very least turning it in late, really affect your grade? It can’t hurt me that bad, right?

13. The Actual Epiphany

But just as you are about to give up, you realize that you actually do know what you were talking about, and have a great idea to make the paper sound amazing, and not like you were finishing it a few hours before it was due.

14. Typing the last word.

“FINALLY! I AM FINISHED! HALLELUJAH!!!!”

15. Realizing you still have to edit the damn thing.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME, HOW AM I NOT DONE WITH THIS YET?!” Ugh. But you have already spent this much time on it, you might as well at least read it through a few times to check for typos and poor phrasing.

16. Finally submitting it.

"I will never do this to myself again. I have finally learned from my mistakes.” You say, until the next paper is assigned…