Life Changing Experience
It was late Wednesday night by the time Nathan finally resigned himself to starting his writing assignment for English 102. The assignment was due in class on Thursday. Not a very comforting fact given that it would be Thursday in a few minutes. The assignment, which he had been given a few days in advance, required him to compose a narrative based upon some previous experience.
Initially this did not seem like too daunting of a task. However, when the time had come to actually write this narrative Nathan found that he had few experiences that were of interest. Of the experiences that might have been captivating he had too little recollection of for them to be told, and then accepted entirely as factual.
Eventually it dawned upon him that writing was experience in it’s self. Writing was the perfect topic. Since it was happening at that very moment it was impossible for him to forget any detail. Also, as soon as he completed the paper it would instantly qualify as a past experience, fulfilling his educational obligation.
Nathan began his epic compositional adventure as he did all homework assignments: with short lived drive and determination. He pulled out the dormitory issued chair, sat down at his little wooden desk and then began to shuffle papers around. Ten minutes later when Nathan decided his work space was sufficiently organized he laid his head down on the desk, and decided perhaps it was best to just go to bed. Skipping one assignment wouldn’t mean he’d fail the class, and so long as he did not make a habit of avoiding coursework his grade would recover.
Nathan stood up, yanked back the covers of his bed, and almost climbed into it when he began to contemplate how much money his parents had spent on tuition. This thought triggered a chain reaction and he then began to think about the ridiculous amount he had spent on books and other academic materials. It would be ridiculous for all this money to be wasted on someone who would not even put forth his or her best effort. He just couldn’t do that do himself or his parents. Besides, it was already too late to return his books for their full refund price. So Nathan rolled back out of bed, opened up his laptop and a new Microsoft word document and began to type.
After adding his name, the date, the course, and the name of his instructor Nathan decided that in order to do his very best work he needed brain food. He opened the refrigerator and opted for the last remaining slice of pepperoni pizza. While it was in the microwave he decided to go down to the lobby and get something to drink. It would be awful to eat pizza without an accompanying pop, and maybe the caffeine would help keep him awake. Once he started eating Nathan realized he couldn’t type and eat at the same time, it would make his keyboard greasy. Nathan decided to watch TV because he didn’t just want to sit there and eat in quiet.
After finishing his quick meal Nathan began to doubt his original paper idea. During the commercials for another TV show he formulated new ones. The first was a short narrative about someone who allowed milk to expire. People who do not finish milk prior to its expiration date really piss Nathan off. Since the act inspired such powerful emotions, Nathan thought that it had potential. His second idea was to write about constantly having to properly replace the toilet paper in the bathroom. Every time the paper ran out, instead of correctly placing it in the dispenser someone would just set it on top.
It was a tough decision so Nathan decided to step outside for a breath of fresh air. He walked outside, and took a deep breath of cigarette smoke. Tenants had gathered on the door step to smoke. Once again Nathan became aware of his current time constraints. With a clear head and renewed ambition he returned to his room, sat down at his keyboard began typing.
Nathan decided to go with his first writing idea because none of the other ideas were suitable because they were really just pet peeves; his sixth grade English teacher had once assigned him a paper on pet peeves and as a college student he had advanced beyond that. Also, it didn’t portray Nathan’s roommate in a very flattering light, he might be annoying sometimes but overall he was a great guy. Complaining about petty stuff like toilet paper and milk just made him come across as an irritable asshole. He was, but the whole class didn’t need to see this.
Nathan typed and as he did so realized that detailing what had transpired over only a couple of hours filled a lot of space. Ironically, had he not procrastinated as much as he always did, Nathan might not have had enough to write about. He finished one paragraph after another, backtracking only a few times to make quick revisions. Before he knew it he was nearing the bottom of his second page, hell once double spaced he be there. The time gap between his initial writing steps and the right now were diminishing word by word, second by second. In a few moments he would caught up with the present, and finished with his paper for English. All that remained was to close the whole thing with some sort of conclusionary statement. Nathan dragged his finger across the laptops touch pad and clicked ‘file’ at the top of the Word document. He saved the document, waited patiently for it to print, then slipped the document into the appropriate folder and promised himself never to procrastinate ever again. This is a broken promise.
Initially this did not seem like too daunting of a task. However, when the time had come to actually write this narrative Nathan found that he had few experiences that were of interest. Of the experiences that might have been captivating he had too little recollection of for them to be told, and then accepted entirely as factual.
Eventually it dawned upon him that writing was experience in it’s self. Writing was the perfect topic. Since it was happening at that very moment it was impossible for him to forget any detail. Also, as soon as he completed the paper it would instantly qualify as a past experience, fulfilling his educational obligation.
Nathan began his epic compositional adventure as he did all homework assignments: with short lived drive and determination. He pulled out the dormitory issued chair, sat down at his little wooden desk and then began to shuffle papers around. Ten minutes later when Nathan decided his work space was sufficiently organized he laid his head down on the desk, and decided perhaps it was best to just go to bed. Skipping one assignment wouldn’t mean he’d fail the class, and so long as he did not make a habit of avoiding coursework his grade would recover.
Nathan stood up, yanked back the covers of his bed, and almost climbed into it when he began to contemplate how much money his parents had spent on tuition. This thought triggered a chain reaction and he then began to think about the ridiculous amount he had spent on books and other academic materials. It would be ridiculous for all this money to be wasted on someone who would not even put forth his or her best effort. He just couldn’t do that do himself or his parents. Besides, it was already too late to return his books for their full refund price. So Nathan rolled back out of bed, opened up his laptop and a new Microsoft word document and began to type.
After adding his name, the date, the course, and the name of his instructor Nathan decided that in order to do his very best work he needed brain food. He opened the refrigerator and opted for the last remaining slice of pepperoni pizza. While it was in the microwave he decided to go down to the lobby and get something to drink. It would be awful to eat pizza without an accompanying pop, and maybe the caffeine would help keep him awake. Once he started eating Nathan realized he couldn’t type and eat at the same time, it would make his keyboard greasy. Nathan decided to watch TV because he didn’t just want to sit there and eat in quiet.
After finishing his quick meal Nathan began to doubt his original paper idea. During the commercials for another TV show he formulated new ones. The first was a short narrative about someone who allowed milk to expire. People who do not finish milk prior to its expiration date really piss Nathan off. Since the act inspired such powerful emotions, Nathan thought that it had potential. His second idea was to write about constantly having to properly replace the toilet paper in the bathroom. Every time the paper ran out, instead of correctly placing it in the dispenser someone would just set it on top.
It was a tough decision so Nathan decided to step outside for a breath of fresh air. He walked outside, and took a deep breath of cigarette smoke. Tenants had gathered on the door step to smoke. Once again Nathan became aware of his current time constraints. With a clear head and renewed ambition he returned to his room, sat down at his keyboard began typing.
Nathan decided to go with his first writing idea because none of the other ideas were suitable because they were really just pet peeves; his sixth grade English teacher had once assigned him a paper on pet peeves and as a college student he had advanced beyond that. Also, it didn’t portray Nathan’s roommate in a very flattering light, he might be annoying sometimes but overall he was a great guy. Complaining about petty stuff like toilet paper and milk just made him come across as an irritable asshole. He was, but the whole class didn’t need to see this.
Nathan typed and as he did so realized that detailing what had transpired over only a couple of hours filled a lot of space. Ironically, had he not procrastinated as much as he always did, Nathan might not have had enough to write about. He finished one paragraph after another, backtracking only a few times to make quick revisions. Before he knew it he was nearing the bottom of his second page, hell once double spaced he be there. The time gap between his initial writing steps and the right now were diminishing word by word, second by second. In a few moments he would caught up with the present, and finished with his paper for English. All that remained was to close the whole thing with some sort of conclusionary statement. Nathan dragged his finger across the laptops touch pad and clicked ‘file’ at the top of the Word document. He saved the document, waited patiently for it to print, then slipped the document into the appropriate folder and promised himself never to procrastinate ever again. This is a broken promise.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home