Lock It Up!

Time to do it: lock it up like a Flagstaff bicycle, bear down like a starting pitcher, concentrate like a can of OJ, focus like the Hubble Space Telescope, get ready like Jimmy Kimmel before he goes Live!, prepare for victory like.... aw, you get my drift. There are now, as of today, 35 days left until my last final and my graduation ceremony. I have plenty to do now, and I really need to get back into concentrating mode to get it finished, because frankly Senioritis has set in BIG TIME, and I actually could be in danger of not passing one class if I don't bear down. As it stands, here are the numbers: 6 = papers left to write, 5 = on-call RA shifts left to do, 4 = tests left to take, 3 = credits left to pass (via the CLEP test), 2 = number of things to buy for graduation (cap & gown set and announcements), 1 = number of group projects left to complete, and 0 = number of job offers I've received for after graduation.... I'm frankly both supremely excited and scared out of my wits. On the one hand, I'm finally graduating from college, getting ready to move into the "real world" - something I've never fully done yet, and will be starting on the rest of my life with a background in something I love (politics and communications). On the other hand, I have to find a job, an apartment, a source of income to pay for deposits, a car or other transportation, finish school, take my final CLEP test, pack all my stuff up for yet another move, survive the Phoenix heat for another summer, and then make the decision about where I will go from here. I won't lie and say I've had an easy time dealing with it. The anxiety I felt on Thursday was almost overwhelming, and I basically shut myself up in my room for about 6 hours after I took a class quiz and tried to calm down about my future. It's a very difficult thing not knowing what is supposed to come next. Do I focus solely on school right now, or do I look for a job, an apartment? What AM I going to do in 36 days? What if I can't find employment right away? Will I have to go back to Mesa and live with my folks for a while? Yesterday, I got a little help from one of my professors. I went in to see him to talk turkey about my grade in his course, and I told him that I was feeling really overwhelmed with the courseload from my final four classes. He gave me some really solid advice, and I think he was feeling the same way, because he's in his own last semester about to retire: he told me that I needed to focus on just paying attention in class and focusing on completing the final paper. Same goes for all my classes: focus on completing the papers, and let the final chips fall where they may. A little anxiety can be a good thing if you can direct the emotion to finishing strong rather than worrying the time away. So that's what I'm going to attempt to do: finish strong, and let the chips for after I get my diploma fall where they may fall.

From Stress Comes.... Good Grades?

After getting back from class a bit ago, I was reflecting on the last few weeks here as my final semester of undergraduate college comes winding down, and I really noticed a pattern of me just seeing stress, deadlines, and rushing to complete my work. I've really not gotten to bed before 3am anytime in the last four weeks, and missed class a few times to take naps to supplant my lack of sleep. I was eating unhealthy, and rushing through some of the stuff I actually enjoy doing just to get papers done for my capstone, writing course, art course, and psychology courses. Well, within the last 24 hours, I found out just how much all that hard work paid off. I had four assignments due this weekend: a four page essay exam for my capstone, an 8-page paper justifying the use of the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, a 3-page art critique, and a 5-page film review for my PSY277 course. Overall, 20 pages. I ended up with the following grades: 198/200, 96/100, 100/100, and 92/100 respectively. Like the parable from the Bible of the woman who has ten silver coins, loses one, and searches all over her house for hours trying to find it, then when she finally does, tells all her friends and neighbors about her joy at having recovered the coin, so too am I sharing my triumphs with my friends about having lost roughly 3 hours of sleep per night only to have gained straight A's on all my work this last week.