I am a procrastinator, just like 99% of our school’s student body. Everyday at school, I start to think about all the productive things I could be doing. If I just devoted all my time to one sport, would I be able to get good enough to go to the Olympics for it? Or what if I just left to go on an adventure to find a lost city somewhere? These are just some of the many thoughts I have while I’m staring out the window at school. I also like to tell myself how productive I am going to be when I get home by finally turning in every piece of late work I have as well as completing assignments that are due in a couple weeks. Not only that, I tell myself that I will go home and clean my room so I can have a productive space to work in. Even the idea of cleaning my room seems better than sitting in a fluorescently lit room. 

Then, of course, when I get home my whole mindset changes. I tell myself that I worked so hard at school that I should allow myself a break. I go on my phone for a little bit, then I tell myself, “no you really do have to start working now.” So, I go to my room, and I remember that one video I saw a couple minutes before of a guy who was really good at playing guitar, so I grab my guitar and try to teach myself. I learn a few chords of the song, but then my fingers hurt so I have to stop. Or sometimes I’ll remember that one drawing I never finished, or how I’ve been meaning to make a new playlist, or clean out all my photos or organize the pens on my desk, but when I am procrastinating, I am never just sitting on my phone. Sometimes when I procrastinate, I’m not even unproductive. Sometimes when I have a big essay that I know will be excruciatingly long, I’ll procrastinate by doing something from another class that I see as more “fun” even though that assignment isn’t due for another week or so. 

My brain knows how important it is to get the big assignments done on time, and I would like to say I do all of this because I choose to, but honestly it just feels like my body takes over my brain and will do anything to get out of finishing a really hard assignment. The only solution to my problem that I could think of is to have a huge assignment due from one of my classes, then I could do all my other assignments because they seem much more easy and fun compared to the big one. Or, I could just not get distracted while I do my homework. Two very reasonable solutions.

This all brings me back to what I was saying earlier about how maybe if I devoted more time to just one thing, I could go to the Olympics or something equally as crazy. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I don’t think I would be able to devote that time if I didn’t have something worse to procrastinate about. If school did not exist and I was out in the world going on an adventure, I wouldn’t have any assignments to avoid, so there’d be no reason for me to push myself to try something new. The truth is, without these assignments hanging over my head, I don’t think I would have half the hobbies I do now, and I wouldn’t find as much joy in them. In a way, the procrastination that school creates for me gives me that drive and push to try new things and to challenge myself to be different.