Theresa Chapman
7-21-13
ENC 1101
B5
When You Put Something Off, You Eventually Get Hurt

Procrastination is no laughing matter and it is a very huge subject when it comes to

students. No one can say they have not committed this awful crime because lets face it, we

all have at least once. Though we are not aware of the consequences until the deadline comes

and hits us right in the face.

It was eighth grade and our teacher assigned us our first big project of the school year. I

was very delighted because projects are always exciting to me, but I assured myself that I would

finish it early this time. The project was to research a famous historical figure and create a report

on the person’s life and achievements which seemed to be easy to me. Although the decision

of exactly who to do it on was a challenge but having the project due within the next few months,

I didn’t think too hard. As days became weeks, I didn’t start my project but rather continued going

on the internet and doing anything besides the project itself. Our teacher gave us constant

reminders in class, and I tried to figure out a good day to work on it; however, I had six

other classes to give attention to so it was difficult. The deadline began to approach with

more velocity and at the time I haven’t even picked an official topic, which did make me worry

on some level. As the deadline began to approach, I did make efforts to start working on the

project, but I had conflicts in schedule due to sporting events and plays. When I became very

oriented in outside activities, my mind shifted focus from the project and even the due date. It

came to my surprise when our teacher announced that the project was set to be due in a week.

From that moment my mind combusted in flames because I knew I was in for long nights of

researching and reporting. After class, I remember sprinting to the school library and scrambled

for historical books. At that point I didn’t declare the person I was going to report on instead I

based it off the largest quantity of books they had on a specific person. So, it happened to be

Abraham Lincoln. As I tangled all the books I needed for my research, I began to highlight every

important information as possible, but being such a popular figure he was, there was an

abundance of detail and it was quite overwhelming. I also had to fit in other homework as well

as giving time to the project because a large percentage of my grade relied on it. During that

week of cramping a lot of work in, I felt tired and got a small portion of sleep. I went to school late

on several occasions and the project left me more stressed than I thought. Luckily, the last few

days I was able to complete my research and type it up. Though it took a tedious amount of time

being the fact that there was so much information. I had to cut some details so it wouldn’t be too

much on my part, but as