Overcoming My Diagnosis by Jacie

Overcoming My Diagnosis by Jacie - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Procrastination is a deadly sickness diagnosed to 99.9% of the teenage population of America. I received the diagnosis my first days of elementary school, and have been stuck with it since. As a senior just pulling through my last months of high school, I never thought I could change my diagnosis, not until this New Years. As 2015 came to a bitter-sweet end and 2016 became a reality rather than a future, so many key moments of my life became a reality as well. Graduation from high school, service for my church, and college became real and not something I could procrastinate any longer. As I pondered over these very real events, a realization came in urgency to change and I made a few New Year’s Resolutions. The one I deem most important and the one I am most devoted to, is curing my illness; in other words, to stop procrastinating my schoolwork.
You would think it would be simple; the cure for procrastination is simply to not wait, to do what you are supposed to immediately. But after almost 12 full years of school assignments and homework, your brain starts to think a certain way. “You can finish it later, after you hang out with your friends” it tells you. “Don’t worry about it now; focus on what’s really important: Netflix.” “You haven’t gone to bed before midnight your whole high school career, why start now?” These are just a few examples of how your brain talks you out of doing your homework and assignments early, before the last minute. It seems almost too hard to overcome… Although, I think I’ve found a cure.
Essays, analyses, equation explanations, and studying are just a small portion of work weighted on the shoulders of a teenager in high school’s shoulders. I’ve found the weight is easier to bear when it’s distributed. I’ve developed a sort of routine for after my daily activities. Personally, I excel in my academic studying at the end of the day, after I’ve gotten everything else I need done. I focus on one class at a time, and get all of that class’s homework finished, and then move on. For my classes such as AP Psych, AP Calculus, and choir- this works very well. Those classes give homework with fill-in-the-blanks, solve the problem, and give a solution. However, my classes such as AP Literature require a more careful and extended system. With assignments such as poetry analyses and book essays, these require more attention in a more distributed time. I have found that doing bits of the assignment each day is suffice enough. For example, I will annotate the poem one day and write down my ideas about it the next. Or I will start writing, leave, and then come back. The brain is an incredible thing, although you are not consciously thinking about your assignments, your brain is still working through your writer’s block and figuring it out. When I come back to these assignments, it’s always easier to get through than when I cram them in at midnight the night before they are due. These methods have successfully helped me in doing my schoolwork on time and efficiently.
I know better than anyone the ramifications that can come from procrastination. Although I get lucky sometimes and do pretty well, more often than not I get a grade I know I could have improved. With careful distribution of time and work, and devotion to my New Year’s Resolution, I know that curing my procrastination tendencies will enhance my academic abilities enormously and over-all, make me an exceptional student now, and for my future education.