Illustrated by Sarah Thompson

As the semester finally comes to an end, I feel obligated to reflect on all the various lessons I’ve learned. Although my time with The Burr was a bit short because of joining later in the semester, I am still satisfied with what I was able to share with you all. Essentially, this blog represented the experience of attempting to find more balance in my school life. Likewise, I tried to experiment with different techniques, particularly procrastination, to help turn some negative aspects of my studying habits into valuable lessons or better strategies. 

One of my main goals this semester was to let go of the stress that surrounds homework and other aspects of school. Personally speaking, I stressed frequently in high school over the pettiest homework assignments and just grades in general, so believe me, I understand wholeheartedly that letting go is much easier said than done. However, I must admit that I unquestionably saw improvement throughout this semester. My problems about stressing over homework and my complications with my inner perfectionist are not resolved by any means, but I can confidently say that I feel more comfortable just sitting down and doing the work. No overthinking, no dwelling, no unnecessary stressing involved–just getting the work done and calling it a day.

Sticking to the theme of my blog, I undeniably feel that procrastination helped me to get to this point. If I sat here and told you that procrastination is never bad, I would absolutely be lying. I do believe that procrastination offers much to learn from. For example, when I began to stress over work or procrastinate assignments due to my perfectionism, I gained more clarity on the situation. I found myself coming to the realization that I should approach assignments and school at times more indifferently. Yes, of course, school matters, but I shouldn’t be neglecting my mental health, my relationships with others and my enjoyments in life because of some homework. Evidently, procrastination helped me become more aware of just how much balance I genuinely lacked in my life. 

Another significant positive that I gained from procrastination was learning more about myself. As odd as this claim may sound, when my mind began to wander, I often would find myself becoming interested in the most bizarre topics. Similarly, I would find myself more open to trying different activities such as various sports to play, different sights to see or new games to try with friends. While you could argue that this was merely a reaction to not wanting to do school work, it still helped me to contemplate more about what I found fun and interesting. As a result, I began doing more independent research on topics I found interesting, going out of my comfort zone a bit to try new activities and in general, being more open to focus on my own personal needs. 

Ultimately, procrastination represents such an ironic concept. While it’s supposed to portray the potential negative aspects associated with work, it can evidently have a positive effect and influence on an individual and their views as a student, employee, etc. Essentially, pondering on such a situation depends on perspective. Like most things in life, the outcome or effect is up to the individual and the perspective that he/she/they take(s) on. When it comes to personal habits such as procrastination, the individual has the power to utilize certain experiences as opportunities to grow and as lessons to learn. 

To wrap up my final blog, I wanted to personally share why I decided to write this blog in the first place. As the main goal, my desire was to try something new that I was interested in. Likewise, I also wanted to explore and expand my writing creativity and skills. Honestly, I did not know what I wanted to write about or even who I really wanted my target audience to be. Consequently, I decided to make the topic personal but also universal at the same time. I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t struggle with procrastination. Similarly, school represents a main source of stress for students. Furthermore, just like myself, I believe that many students often find themselves discouraged or more critical of themselves when they’re more prone to procrastination. Due to these reasons, I wanted to display a different perspective on this common habit in order to help others with their daily struggles as a student. Ultimately, as a perk, I found this blog helping me resolve and sort out my own struggles. 

Thank you to all who read or shared my blog, and I hope I was able to offer some type of learning experience for the rest of your time as a student. Also, remember that it really is okay to procrastinate.