The young man stared at the eraser sitting on the desk. He gingerly poked at it with his pencil. He considered it for a moment. He considered its form, its composition, its meaning in the universe...He continued to stare at the eraser. But poking the eraser was not the task at hand. The task at hand was writing an essay on the influence of French revolutionaries on the artistic, political, and social movements of the past two centuries…or was it a chemistry exam?1
It was not uncommon to see this young man sit at his desk and procrastinate. To the casual observer, it may have appeared that the young man in question was indifferent to the outcome of this essay or exam. This was, of course, not the case. It was not a matter of indifference, but rather a matter of understanding. He just didn’t like to jump into the thick of things right away. He needed to understand the very essence of the questions, before he could even begin the test. He usually understood it so well that he forgot what he was understanding altogether. He just didn’t like to jump into the thick of things right away.2
“Perhaps he has a subconscious desire for self destruction,” his instructors would say. And, like the young man, they would attempt to understand this difficult question until their ears bled. “He just doesn’t care,” they would finally say. This was the general consensus. Sometimes, some of the more radical (or sadistic, depending on who you are) instructors of this young man would confront him on the matter. They supposed that if they could get an answer from the source, they could put the matter to rest. They secretly hoped it was a simple case of a complete lack of caring on his part. That would have made it easy. But, like many things in teaching, the answer he provided never gave him away.3
“It’s not as if I like to procrastinate,” he would say miserably, “it’s just that I need to think about it before I do anything about it.”4
“Thinking about it does not include considering the meaning of life, or that most elusive of questions, ‘Why’,” they would say just as miserably, “Answering a simple question doesn’t require you to be a philosopher.”5
As the young man contemplated this (and the meaning of life), an odd thought occurred to him. Perhaps it would be a good idea to…start the essay? This was an entirely foreign thought, one that had never even attempted to cross the banks of the little stream that was his mind.6
“This will require further thought,” he thought.7
No! Another thought occurred to him! The point was to finish the essay in the set allotment of time! And by doing this, the essay would be handed in complete. Therefore it would be marked. Then, provided he had performed well, it would result in a good mark on the test…which would ultimately result in a good grade in the course! The young man was intrigued.8
He proceeded to ready himself. With pencil in hand, and the task at the forefront of his mind, he prepared. This was it. He was about to start an essay. He felt more alive than he had ever been before.9
He continued to stare at the eraser on the desk. 10
What did you think? Please comment!
Comments
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Ah! A fellow procrastinator! Always good to hear feed back from procrastinators...it means one's so good, one's actually motivated them to do something, heh heh.
Thank you for the kind words, on this and other pieces of mine. I hope to hear more.
Cheers,
Yossarian -
Haha. I love it. This is me to a "T" I only work on hyper-focus (a.k.a. Procrastination). The best work always comes in the nick of time! Oh that eraser so great! And the thoughts being flushed in one after another all interconnecting leading to another! I'll be attempting to take a college algebra test and be pondering cosmic consciousness instead than I'll begin to think about the Nazca Lines. This was great, got me thinking
Keep Feelin' Fascination,
~Tiffany~
Keep Feelin' Fascination,
~Tiffany~ -
philosophic
So once he finally worked through his thoughts and decided the
time had come to ACT, he turned out to be a procrastinator
after all. I wonder if he'll tell his instrutors next time
they ask.
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