A Creature of Procrastination

       It was the last month of my freshman year. I had worked hard all year to complete my assignments on time, to put quality effort into them, and to earn good grades. However, the creature project in my biology class was the one that pushed me to my limits. As I said before, it was the end of the year and, naturally (I think this happens to most people), I became slower and, most of all, somewhat lazy in my academic work. I found myself the day before the creature project was due with half the work done! This was not a sixth grade drawing and summary of an invented animal. It was a thorough analysis of the environment, adaptations, and significant developments of an animal that had to be drawn with particular detail as well. Essentially, it was a drawing with an analytical essay, as expected from a high school course.
       The time was slowly ticking away as it got darker and darker. Obviously, I had other homework which I finished beforehand, but this left me little time to finish the one thing that was the most important. Midnight came around and I had finished the illustration of a very good looking desert lizard. I also completed the other sections except the two longest parts: the adaptations and environmental interactions. Suddenly, my mother came into my room and told me that I could not stay up so late and had to go to sleep. Frankly, I was devastated. How on earth could an A+ student bare to get a C on his final project of the year? I formulated a very good plan. Instead of skipping school the next day, my determination gave me the belief that I would somehow finish before that last period biology class.
        It was four in the morning the next day. Like a zombie, I stood up, turned of the alarm and showered. Thankfully, nobody had woken up. The cold shower felt very uncomfortable in that early morning, but I knew that was necessary in order to keep me awake. I turned on the computer and started typing as fast as I could, and finally, an end product was reached by the time my dad and brother were waking up at six. I was very proud of completing those four pages of analysis. Unfortunately, I only had time to revise once. At least I knew it was going to be C grade material.
       The rest of day was one of the hardest I have experienced. It was the first time I had gotten four hours of sleep on a school night and my eyes were literally closing in every class. Paying attention seemed like an impossible task. However, I managed not to make a fool of myself and I did not completely fall asleep. In biology, I turned in the binder as if nothing had happened. Two week later the grades were in. Those two weeks were full on anxiety and I was checking Progress Book, where all the grades were, non-stop. Finally the day came. This was the biggest surprise yet: I had gotten a 98% and my teacher asked me to use my binder as an example for future students. She certainly did not know what an enormous amount of procrastination lay hidden in that binder.
       Hello fellow readers and welcome to my blog. My name is Daniel and currently I am a junior, still in the same school. This secret has stayed with me for a long time now. I do admit to being a procrastinator; however, this is a case that happens not very often. As the story tells, I work hard academically to be an excellent student. My methods might not be ideal to follow but are anybody’s methods ideal? I like to think that everybody is a unique individual and whatever helps a person achieve the best results is the strategy they should follow. Pressure might be some people’s motivation, but ironically I do make a strong suggestion to use time wisely.
       Now that you know a little about me from an academic standpoint, I would like to reveal some more details about myself as a general introduction. My favorite sport is tennis and I absolutely love playing it. Like most teenage boys, I enjoy playing videogames. Traveling is a must for me and my family and I go on amazing vacations each year in Europe. I have been playing the piano for about ten years now. I hope you enjoy my further entries, in which I will reveal what changes I believe should take place in America’s educational system and how this would prevent sleep-deprived student like me on the day I finished that project.