This is the story of every student’s motivation between Thanksgiving break and finals, as told in the style of a western. Enjoy.

In every western town, there is a sheriff. It’s the sheriff’s job to keep order in the town and keep any trouble away. He weeds out the bad seeds before they have a chance to do any damage. The sheriff is you and your moral compass. You know what needs to be done in your heart. That is the sheriff.

The sheriff benefits from a deputy. Although the sheriff is well-liked throughout the town, he prefers to operate alone. The only person he begrudgingly accepts help from is the deputy. The deputy is your motivation; sometimes he is hard to work with, but you know you need him.

The outlaw is there to spoil the peace and the progress in the town. It is the job of the sheriff and the deputy to prevent the outlaw from doing any damage. The outlaw is any distraction you can think of ranging from career concerns to your Thanksgiving dinner, that you miss so dearly.

After some rough times a few months ago, the town of College was peacefully continuing its existence. Progress was being made, and for the most part, the townspeople were happy. The sheriff was enjoying the time off when he heard the familiar distressing sound of the alarm. Pausing to recall his protocol, he rushed to his feet and then to his horse and rushed to the source of the alarm. Flatly, he asked the young woman ringing the bell what the source of the problem was. She spoke almost too quickly to understand,

“There’s been a terrible tragedy just down by the barn! I didn’t know what else to do so I decided to ring the bell.”

After briefly reassuring her, the sheriff raced towards the barn to find a bloody scene. To his horror he read the message left behind by the assailant, an enemy he thought he had driven away months ago. The message said simply “Midterm 1." There was a gathering of townspeople around the scene, and as soon as the sheriff came, a brief wave of relief could be seen on their faces before they started questioning him.

“I thought you said he was gone!”

“I think we need a new sheriff.”

“What do we do about our families? No one is safe!”

The sheriff was used to this kind of questioning. This time, he didn’t have any good answers. He sent them away with a few reassuring words that he didn’t quite believe himself. He knew that their peace of mind was more important that his own. On his way back to his home, the sheriff reflected on the situation with his deputy. The sheriff knew he needed to catch the outlaw, but he didn’t think it would be possible, the outlaw was too deceptive. The deputy reassured him that he could do it. He told the sheriff that he had dealt with many criminals throughout his years on the job and this was no different. It was just going to take some work.

Later that night the sheriff and the deputy decided to spend some time investigating the situation and looked around to see if they could find any more clues. To their surprise and delight, they found the culprit! With some amount of disbelief, they organized a town meeting for the next morning to announce the capture of the criminal. The townspeople rejoiced and all was well.

Several weeks later the sheriff awoke in his bed to the alarm ringing. He shuddered as he remembered the scene he saw the last time the alarm rang. As he rushed to the source of the alarm his heart sank as he saw a man sobbing near the bell. He needed no explanation and rode into the distance where he could see a small source of light next to the wall of the tavern. He approached the somber scene with the deputy close on his heels, and to their shock they saw another horrific scene. The message left by the outlaw was almost the same as the last one, but with one small alteration. The message read “Midterm 2." The shouting from the townspeople at the last incident was replaced by looks of disgust and disappointment directed towards the sheriff and his deputy.

The next day the townspeople had elected a new sheriff and a new deputy; the now former deputy and sheriff were driven out and forced to the plains of Thanksgiving Break, miles beyond the town limits. After spending several days there, the former sheriff and former deputy had completely lost hope. They were almost out of water and completely out of food. Suddenly, the former deputy had an idea on how they could become accepted as a part of the community again; they needed to catch the outlaw.

In the time they had spent together after the second incident, the former sheriff and the former deputy had narrowed the outlaw down to three suspects. After hours and hours of deliberation, the deputy and the sheriff had a plan of action. They decided they needed to return to the town of College that night in order to avoid attention so that they could confront the outlaw before he commits his next crime.

Upon their return, they decided to stay in the barn that overlooked the town to avoid being seen. They decided to go out to catch the criminal on the anniversary of the last big attack.

The former deputy and former sheriff waited patiently outside the bank. Their eyes scanned the landscape for any movement until they finally saw the assailant. He was walking out of the bank, looking over his shoulder, and hurriedly taking something from a bag. As they watched, the outlaw began to write on the wall but before he had time to finish, the they appeared out of the darkness and made their presence known.

“I’m going to need you to come with me”, said the former sheriff as he approached the outlaw with his hand at his hip. In the darkness the former sheriff fumbled to find his gun only to remember that it had been taken at the time of his exile. The outlaw began to shout as he attempted an escape, and the chase began. As they ran through the streets of College, the former deputy and former sheriff yelled to try to slow the outlaw down. Townspeople were looking from their windows and their front doors as the chase continued throughout the town. Suddenly the city was lit up and the outlaw could be seen clearly. The former sheriff and former deputy cornered him between the tavern and the bank after completing a loop around the city. They took him into the nearby jail and had him locked away.

The townspeople cheered as they walked out of the jail and the new deputy and sheriff gave up their positions and returned their badges to their former owners. Order was restored. The deputy and the sheriff returned to the scene of the crime from earlier that night to discover that the writing on the bank said “Final Exam” but this display of vandalism didn’t matter because all was well with the town and in the end, the outlaw had lost, and the sheriff and his deputy had won.